Jim Lieb, I think part of the misunderstanding here has to do with perspective:  Long term thinking and personal responsibility vs reaction and fear.

We're still nominally a government of the people; as such, it's our responsibility to hold government accountable for its actions in our name on the world stage.  Doing so, and acting to refrain from repeating the mistakes of the past, would be a valuable instrument in our tool-box for heading off many of the drivers for international terrorism.  Pointing out these mistakes is not seeking to justify violence against the innocent; it's a effort to understand the roots of the problem.

Conflating muslims with terrorism is not a solution---It's exactly the opposite, and ignores the fact that muslims are not terrorists.  Terrorists are terrorists, regardless of the ideology they want to hide behind---And ignoring our own principles of equality and tolerance is just going to create more of them.