Rus: I wasn’t referring to you as a big mouth at all. I was pointing out that the particular freedoms we enjoy, such as free speech, and the right of dissent, and the freedom of religion, don’t exist at all in those countries, or exist in severely curtailed and closely monitored forms.

My point about the Moslems was not a red herring. They are not simply unwitting victims in a largely Western conspiracy; rather, the conflict between Islam and the West (and the East, for that matter) has existed from the beginning of Islam’s expansion into “infidel” territory. The “Crusader” myth that Osama spins for his followers and a gullible Western media and Leftists all too eager to buy it, is exactly that: A myth. The Crusades weren’t solely a result of Christians attempting to retake Jerusalem and the Holy Land, they were also an attempt to resist the decades of predations and invasions that Christians had suffered at the hands of Moslems.

What Osama sells and many buy is the notion somehow that the US “deserved” 9/11 as a result of our policies and actions. As is true with every good lie, there is a kernel of truth in there. But ask yourself this: What is Osama’s greater vision for Israel, the US and the world? One where all peoples coexist peacefully, enjoy freedom of speech and religion, and the right of franchise? I don’t think so, and I’m hard pressed to think you do, either. We haven’t forced him into anything. He is motivated by a racist, xenophobic vision of a world dominated by an archaic form of Islam; a form of Islam that despises modernity and the notions of free speech, or another religion or religions, or any type of freedom of government, or sexuality, or equality.