R2P in the Holy Land

Given the violence that erupts from the Islamic world, the Long War will go on until enough Moslems join together to defeat the minority of Moslems who carry out the violence. Right now, too many Moslems either passively agree with the violence, don't disagree enough to stop it, or are too afraid of being a victim of that Islamist violence to stop it.

One thing that always annoys me--whether it is from Islamists or idiot Westerners who reach back centuries for an excuse to justify Islamist terrorism today--is the portrayal of the Crusades as Western aggression against Islam. When you consider that Islam conquered a lot of Christian lands, why isn't trying to retake them simply justifiable resistance to conquest? Strategypage puts it simply:

Many of the earliest Moslem converts were Christians. And many of the peoples Moslem armies unsuccessfully sought to conquer were Christian. The original Crusades, which modern Moslems portray as Western aggression, were actually a Western attempt to rescue Middle Eastern Christians from increasing Islamic persecution, terrorism and violence.

In modern terms, rather than being aggression, weren't the Crusades an example of Western collective defense from their own sainted international community--with a major responsibility to protect component for the Christians who were being ethnically cleansed?