[jjoonathan]

I was counting U.S. civilian casualties from Al Quaeda on 9/11 against civilian casualties in Iraq + Afghanistan with all figures coming from my highly imperfect memory. There are a number of obvious reasons why this comparison isn't entirely appropriate, I can think of a number of more appropriate comparisons, and you can probably do a better job than I. But before you rise to the occasion, let's re-focus on the core argument.

My claim: We (the US) are unmatched in our ability to "export our agenda" by "using technology to slaughter civilians." Terrorists do the same thing just on a much smaller scale. A direct comparison is appropriate, as is dismissing their relative contribution to the civilian death toll by calling them "pesky hut-dwellers."

[josefresco]

This isn't going to a good place so I'm disengaging, but I wanted to just say when I read "But before you rise to the occasion" I chuckled.