I think most people that disagree with this idea are mostly fearful of facing the fact that it is the same. The war with Japan was definitely the bloodiest campaign this country has seen in it's history minus the civil war. Sometimes people want to ignore the obvious because it is easier than facing the reality of the situation. Ahmadinejad has stated that he wants to be our friend now. Many people will believe this to be sincere because it is easier than facing the reality that this guy is just buying time in order to pursue his agenda of obtaining nuclear weapons.
Civilized comparison? definitely depends how you look at it. There is one very obvious difference though. Islamist rads target civilians, the west does not. Please don't use the collateral damage argument here. Although the US and its allies accept a certain amount of collateral damage, they go out of their way to avoid it. Specifically why the US spends a bloody fortune on smart weapons rather than just carpet bombing. Also, its awfully hard to avoid when the "enemy" neither wears uniforms nor separates itself from the civilian population. Who should you really place the blame on this one?
I am currently reading "The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers" by Paul Kennedy. The Ottomans were one of the most highly developed societies. Some of the hghlights... They (Ottomans) had a large navy that sailed all along the North African coast, and were raiding ports in Italy and Spain. They established a unity of official faith, culture and language over an area greater than the Roman Empire with a population of 14,000,000 (at the time Spain had 5,000,000 and England 2,500,000). Their cities were large, well lit and drained. Constantinople, with a population of of over 500,000 was larger than any European city of the time. They excelled in mathematices, cartography and were very tolerant of other nationalities. In fact they recruited Christian youth from the Balkans. The plit between the Shi'ite and Sunni branchs of Islam occurred during the 1500's. The leader of the Shi'ite kingdom allied with Euorpean powers against the Ottoman state and this led to their downfall. They almost conquered all of Europe, so thank your lucky stars or you would be kissing a carpet 3 times a day.