1> What the MSM is emphasizing is the results for a particular demographic — the highly-publicized “1 in 4″ number is the proportion of Muslims in America under 30 who believe that suicide bombing can be justified under some circumstances.

This is worse than it looks … as this is the prime demographic for recruiting suicide bombers.

2> The question posed to Americans by the University of Maryland poll, and the Christian Science Monitor’s analysis, is oversimplified (and biased?).

There is a big difference between American attacks on civilian targets …

… which are performed in the context of a nation-on-nation war, using precision-guided munitions and tactics that place our warfighters at further risk to hold down civilian casualties to an absolute minimum, while still striking the support infrastructure of an enemy …

… with the objective of stopping hostilities on the part of that enemy and/or establishing rights-respecting goevernance in place of the enemy regime …

… and terrorist attacks, which intentionally target civilians in ways that maximize casualties, often located in areas well away from our war-support infrastructure, with the objective of establishing/preserving/expanding totalitarian rule, either directly or through leverage of the international community.