As an observer from on far I must say that the American left and right have been speaking seperate languages since 9-11. The right feels they have been awaken to a war that has been going on for a long time and that the entire middle east is fair game (they're all involved)... in their minds... The left feels 9-11 was come-uppance, just desserts. I don't think religion has anything to do with this, and I don't think anything will change until 'offended' Americans feel they have been 'repaid' for 9-11.
Interesting viewpoint--I think most people are a little more shades of gray than that but you layout the opposite poles pretty well.
And of course, the impication of those two beliefes is also a dichotomy, the right saying the problem is we haven't been activist enough w/ the middle east so must become more so, the left saying we've interfered too much and must start to refrain.
Going forward with the marketing aspect. This month's Esquire within the "The Cure" feature has a page on the rebranding the Democratic party (page 132). For example ...TenUnited out of Columbus came up with the slogan "Power to the Purple". The feature is worth the minute that it takes to read.
Interesting take on this piece here:
http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110006680
A book has come out recently saying that the act of the 9-11 crashes was all about religion, as there's a big fight between fundamentalist Muslims and democratic, rationalist Muslims in the Mid-East. The fundamentalists crashing planes into the twin towers was pretty much more of a demonstrative act against the democratic, ratinalist Muslims than anything against the US.
Otherwise, I can see what you're saying that in the States, it's necessarily so much about religion as nationalism and being on the defensive.