I suspect Nick M does not care how many innocent or not innocents get killed as long as his particular life is not actually endangered by the action.
This is what saddens me so much as an actual Christian. The neocons don't care how many lives they destroy (let alone how many people's livelihood they destroy) in order to construct their utopian visions of a Christianized world imposed at the point of a gun. Typically I'd say "democracy" but most of the people here support some type of monarchy (which is really the least of their problems.)
These cultures in the Middle East are Islamic to the core. They want to do things that we as westerners would find repugnant. And we are right to find them repugnant, as the Bible, which is the foundation for Western Civilization, says they are repugnant. However, we cannot simply remold the world to our liking. God didn't give governments authority outside their own borders for a reason.
I would just ask you, as an atheist, keep in mind that not all of us are like this, and some of us are actively fighting the influence of things like this in our churches. I believe in God's grace. I also believe in justice, but not in the bloodthirsty way that some of these people do.
And that's not to say I'm better than them. Indeed, I was just like them, before I got saved.
But when we do it, we do it for freedom!
(insert that Romney quote about freeing nations from dictators).
Except that never works. And neocons are too stupid/evil to understand that it doesn't work. Dictators are not oppressing western minded people that desperately want American style government. These people are Islamic radicals, who want to be ruled by Sharia.