Moslems captured the Holy Land from Christians and, in fact, the Crusades were an effort to reclaim that land:
The word "crusader" has been completely captured by the forces political correctness. Whatever their sins, the Crusaders weren't conquerors or the first invading shock troops of Western imperialism. They were warriors sent to reclaim lands taken by Islamic invaders. The great irony is that both Western progressives and Islamic fundamentalists have unwittingly bought into the same propaganda.
The failure of our left side of the aisle to understand this basic fact aggravates me to no end and any historic parallels they try to make with today is just silly as a result.
Here is something more on the war with the jihadis. I will say that I don't think we need to explicitly call this a war on Islam even though a disturbingly large number of Moslems tolerate or even draw some satisfaction from the violent minority that tries to kill us (and many others). But most are probably just too afraid they will be targets if they stand up to the jihadis who ruin Islam's image (except for the Left which goes along with the jihadi narrative of an evil West out to get Islam). If using a generic "war on terrorism" term helps Moslems who would join us in the Islamic Civil War over the very soul of Islam, I'm not going to be upset.
Remember, this is like a massive counter-insurgency problem. Ultimately, we need Moslems to fight the jihadis and our active role in the fight should last only until non-violent Moslems can stand up to take over the fight and win it. And the fight isn't just on battlefields and in intelligence and police agencies--it is a fight in the mosques and in the media to undermine the appeal of jihad.
It's a long war, remember.
