Sorry about the really long delay with answer, the week got better of me.
Your original post posited a reasonable question, but I felt the details were somewhat muddled. The reason I reacted and answered was that I have seen this style of questioning elsewhere before. The way you finished off was actually a little alarming: it'd be really easy to drop in with a followup that in turn would look like the other person was trying to defend the indefensible.
With my original reply I attempted to defuse that potential. The issue is incendiary enough without people willingly misunderstanding each other.