Andy McCarthy wonders, since “war” and “terror” are no good, if it’s okay if we call this present conflict the “On” — “or would that offend all the moderate prepositions?”
“War on terror” has always been a stupid and misleading term. But this recommendation to abandon it is even more stupid and misleading.
New adventures in Washington’s absurd flight from reality: “Security chief decries “˜war on terror,– by Demetri Sevastopulo in the Financial Times, May 28 (thanks to Jed Babbin):
The west needs a more comprehensive strategy to counter al-Qaeda propaganda and the US should stop using the term “war on terror”, according to a top intelligence official.
Charles Allen, the senior intelligence official at the Department of Homeland Security, says the phrase is counter-productive because it creates “animus” in Islamic countries.
“[It] has nothing to do with political correctness,” Mr Allen said in an interview. “It is interpreted in the Muslim world as a war on Islam and we don’t need this.”…
It has everything to do with political correctness, Mr. Allen. The jihadists say they are fighting an Islamic jihad. Understanding the jihad theology gives us unique insight into the motives and goals of the jihadists. If the Muslim world sees our resistance to these people as a war on Islam, maybe they aren’t all that reliable as friends of the United States in the first place. But if they’re really upset about this, they ought to be directing their ire against the Muslims who use Islam in this way — which they are not doing — instead of against non-Muslims who merely take note of the usage.
Michael Chertoff, the Homeland Security secretary, does not agree with suggestions that the phrase is equated with a war on Islam, says Russ Knocke, his spokesman.
“We are at war with terrorism, and its underlying ideology — not Islam — and we”ve gone out of our way to make that point,” says Mr Knocke. “In truth, war has been declared upon us.”
Indeed you have gone out of your way to make that point, Mr. Knocke — even to the point of dealing in half-truths and comforting falsehoods and avoiding unpleasant truths. But in truth, war has been declared upon us — by Muslims, in the name of Islam. No amount of denial or sugarcoating this fact will make it go away.
Peter Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House intelligence committee, in an interview said the phrase “war on terror” was the “dumbest term”¦you could use”. The Michigan lawmaker, who criticises the Bush administration for using an overly aggressive tone, says he has urged Stephen Hadley, the national security adviser, not to use the expression.
It is indeed a “dumb” term. It is war on a tactic, not on a foe. But this foe we are afraid to name.
Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for Mr Hadley, said the White House recognises that “the use of the word “˜Islamic” before the word terrorist can be heard by Muslims”¦as lacking nuance, which may incorrectly suggest that all Muslims are terrorists or that we are at war with Islam”.
“Islamic terrorists” suggests neither, although the fear of using it suggests knee-knocking abject dhimmitude in the White House. “Islamic terrorists” no more suggests that all Muslims are terrorists than the phrase “Italian fascists” suggests that all Italians are fascists, or than the phrase “courageous intelligence analysts” suggests that all intelligence analysts are courageous. And it doesn’t suggest we are at war with Islam, either, unless all Muslims are terrorists — which is the very point that these politically correct mau-mauers would strenuously deny.
“While we want to be mindful to the way our messages are heard by Muslim audiences, we also think war on terror accurately describes the fight we are in,” he added.
Well, think again. It no more accurately describes this fight than “war on bombs” or “war on hijacked airplanes that crash into skyscrapers” would.
While the military in general tends to echo the langauge [sic!] of the president, Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the joint chiefs who recently met with moderate Muslim leaders to hear their concerns, tries to ensure his language does not create the perception of a war against Islam, Captain John Kirby, his spokesman, said.
“The chairman is aware of the concerns voiced by many in the Muslim community about the phrase “˜war on terror”,” Captain Kirby said.
“He is committed — when speaking of it — to focusing his language and efforts on the violent extremists we are fighting. This is not a war on Islam. It’s a war against lethal enemies who are using a warped view of that faith to justify killing innocent civilians.”
And part of their warped view is that they present themselves to peaceful Muslims as the true and pure Muslims, as we have seen again and again — and they get recruits that way. But that is too politically incorrect a fact for us to notice, much less try to counter. We are to swallow the dogma that the jihadists’ Islam is warped, and that virtually all Muslims see it as such, no matter what the evidence to the contrary.
That is part of the message that Mr Allen would like the US to emphasise in countering al-Qaeda propaganda around the globe. He says the west needs to orchestrate a “very structured”, almost cold war-style communications strategy to accomplish this….
In the Cold War we were against Communism. There was not this politically correct word-mincing going on at high levels.
Frank Cilluffo, a terrorism expert at George Washington University and former special assistant to Mr Bush for homeland security, says the US government can take a series of steps to help counter al-Qaeda. He agrees that the US should abandon the concept of a “war on terror” — which “fuels the adversaries narrative” — and “decouple religion from ideology”.
Cilluffo is terminally naive if he thinks the U.S. can accomplish this and have any credibility among Muslims in doing so. He is also apparently unaware (although he has heard a couple of presentations by me, and I was in there pitching, folks) that Islam traditionally has had a political and social, i.e., an ideological component. This aspect of Islam wasn’t invented by bin Laden, or Khomeini. It is as old as Muhammad, and central to Islam. Does he really think that the U.S, by playing word games, can eliminate or “decouple” it from Islamic piety? Good luck with that.
In the long term, however, Mr Cilluffo says the solution will have to come from within the Muslim community, partly by imams and Islamic scholars stressing that al-Qaeda has deliberately misinterpreted the Koran to justify violence, which he adds will help “take the jihadi cool out of the narrative”.
Here again is that ever-elusive unicorn, the interpretation of the Qur’an that rejects violence. Frank Cilluffo and everyone else in Washington fervently believe it exists, and are ready to buy all kinds of snake oil in search of it. Unfortunately, there is no such traditional or mainstream understanding of the Qur’an that fits this bill. One could conceivably be invented, although then it will be denounced in Islamic communities as bid’a — innovation.
One would think that it would be worthwhile to understand all this, so as to formulate a realistic strategy based on genuine reality. But instead, official Washington is retreating farther and farther into Fantasy Based Policymaking.