It is not primarily about Israel or Palestinian grievances. Despite what our blinkered academic establishment thinks, the war is not about post-colonial resentments, either.
Colonialism is two or three generations past.
We are not going to war against Islam. The vast majority of Muslims want no part of terror, and many Muslim states are as nervous about terrorism as we are. The problem is a rigid religious subculture that cannot cope with openness, change, rules, democracy, secularism and tolerance, wishing to destroy those who can. For some in this twisted culture, the Crusades have never ended. For others, like bin Laden, the dream is to restore the caliphate, the glorious age of Muslim domination that flourished after the death of Muhammad.