So, answer the "good question"...

Let's mutually agree to keep this civil and fair, and we can dispense with the "P.C." for this discussion. Suffice to say that the radical "Islamo-fascists" (a term I'm still not comfortable with) and Islamists are reading and basing their conduct on the same Qu'ran that the moderate and rational Muslims are reading... but Islam is not historically understood to be a religion that "integrates" into society. It completely dominates a society until all other beliefs are gone. Thus, unless specifically noted, I will be referring to Islam during my discussion... these are general failings and broad realities related to Islam as a whole, and to radical hate-mongers specifically.

Your post mentioned 9-11 (generally), but surely you don't think that is the beginning of the Islamic animosity towards the USA, do you? The WTC bombings, the Marine barracks attack in Beirut, the Iranian hostage crisis... my modern list doesn't even begin until the late 70's. I can still make "devil's advocate" statements linking the Barbary Wars (our nation's first foreign wars) with Islamic tyranny and terror targeted at American interests, so MY list of anti-American focus among Muslim states and societies goes back to 1784.

Prior to 2001, our history of fighting a "hot war" with an Islamic state has been limited to the Barbary Wars. I'm not counting the "brush wars" of the Cold War (which constituted support, not actual fighting) and I'm not counting the Iran-Iraq War (support again, and to both sides). The 1991 liberation of Kuwait saw US troops fighting Muslims... but we were fighting alongisde Muslims, too... so does that count?

I guess the point I am making is that I think the US has been a focus of Islamic hatred and aggression EVERY time a Muslim state has the power and might required to project force internationally. The period of relative "peace" between 1815 and 1916 (when the US went to war against the Ottoman Empire in WWI) reflects a period of reduced ability among Muslim states to project force. Since the end of WWI, there hasn't been a "Muslim superpower"... but there has been an increase in the ability for even small, poor nations to project force over great distances, culminating in the ability of a couple of hundred radical extremists to destroy terror targets halfway around the globe on 9-11. I would offer as proof the fact that examples of Muslim extremism exist all through the period of 1815-1916 geographically closer to Turkey, the Middle East, and North Africa... but more rarely (if at all) the further you get from the region.

Obviously, my argument extends rather nicely into the idea that it is nearly ALL of Western culture that Islam hates, and thus all of the Western world is in danger of Islamic extremism (which it is). However, keeping the discussion narrowed to only the US and her interests removes the question of whether or not we are bringing the violence on ourselves with unjustified intercessionary actions involving other nations... as today's liberals are so apt to say.

So, does anyone have specific examples from history to support or negate my premise?