The GP comment was highlighting that 作戦 includes the character for "war". Now, in the case of "crusades", the word has very negative connotation in Arab/Muslim

The GP comment was highlighting that 作戦 includes the character for "war". Now, in the case of "crusades", the word has very negative connotation in Arab/Muslims countries. So, when George Bush said the war on terror was a "crusade", the vast majority of political commentators in the Arab world took this literally as religious war between the Christian and Islamic civilizations.