For the record, few of my personal views on Islam have have made their way onto these boards. (Some that have are hardly apologist; witness my suggestion in this thread that fanatics with hopelessly closed minds are “broken” and should be killed.) Rather, I’m just trying to cast a small ray of light on the many nuances and complexities that exist in a 1500-year-old, richly textured theology that most non-Muslims are unfamiliar with. Matters of religion, regardless of which one, are rarely black and white.
djbdjb, by labeling me an “apologist”, you believe there is something I’m apologizing for, thereby implying that you already have a specific idea about Islam and the Quran that you would like to see proven correct. However, I will give you the benefit of the doubt and continue rambling on in such a way that I sound impressive and pretentious.
Arabic words, like words in most languages, have numerous shades of meaning; additionally, the Quran is written in Classical Arabic. The text exists exactly as it was codified in the 7th Century – predating even Beowulf, written in Old English sometime around 1000 A.D. The original untranslated version of Beowulf is available at Internet History Sourcebooks. I certainly can’t make heads or tails of the original Beowulf, so I’d need a Modern English translation. However, since many of the idioms and customs described in a circa 10th Century story might not make any sense to a modern reader, the Modern English translation would be, by definition, an interpretation that does make sense to us today. Similarly, most Muslims are not Arabs and thus don’t speak modern Arabic, to say nothing of classical Arabic, so they’d need translations (whether they’re in English, French, Urdu, Chinese, etc). Even among the English “translations” available all over the web, specific word choices vary widely throughout the text.
To tie this all back into the OP: a commonly held view is that yes, the Quran says non-Muslims can be killed, but ONLY when they threaten Muslims. Furthermore, the Quran goes further to say it’s also cool if otherwise-murderous non-Muslims aren’t killed in battle, but merely taken prisoner. Basically, God is saying, “Although your pre-revelation customs may say you can slaughter whomever you want, just because they don’t worship your own gods, I say you can’t do that – they have to be threatening you in order for you to hurt them.” (A far cry indeed from “Mercy is for the weak! The enemy deserves no mercy!” 
) Finally, Classical Arabic words interpreted into English as “smite” may in fact have several meanings, one of which resembles “smite” – but maybe the resemblance isn’t perfect.