Funny thing: the jihadists commonly call American forces “Crusaders,” and some American analysts are happy to accept the locution. But those same American analysts, as willing as they are to charge Bush with leading a Crusade, are generally reluctant to accept that the other side is waging a jihad. From AFP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:
DUBAI (AFP) – Al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri warned the West it faced defeat in what he termed its “new crusade” against the Islamic world, as well as thousands of dead and economic collapse, in a videotape aired by Al-Jazeera television.
“Your new crusade will end, God willing, with the same defeat as its predecessors, but only after you have suffered tens of thousands of dead and the destruction of your economy,” Zawahiri said in his message to “the peoples of the West” broadcast by the Qatar-based satellite channel….
Zawahiri, hunted by the US and believed to be hiding on the Pakistani-Afghan border, warned the West: “Your real safety lies in treating the Muslim nation on the basis of respect and ceasing aggression (against it).”