our violence

In foreign policy, the myth of religious violence serves to cast nonsecular social orders … in the role of villain. They  have not yet learned to remove the dangerous influence of religion from political life. Their violence is therefore irrational and fanatical. Our violence, being secular, is rational, peace making, and sometimes regrettably necessary to contain their violence. We find ourselves obliged to bomb them into liberal democracy…

     -- William Cavanaugh, The Myth of Religious Violence: Secular Ideology and the Roots of Modern Conflict