The Moniker: War on Terror.

The other day at the Belmont Club I got into a discussion about the advance of freedom in the Middle East and how we need to prepare for counter-attacks from the jihadis to try to regain the initiative. This all relates to the note from OBL advising Al-Zarqawi to hit the USA homeland instead of killing Muslims in Iraq.

One of the people in on the discussion stated:

Cedarford states:
It isn't a GWOT. Any more than WWII was a war on sneak attacking naval ships. Terror is just a tactic. The real war is between radical Islam - the modern world, and a more moderate Islam.

I have a problem with this. First off by now it is at best sophomoric to point out that a war on terror is calling it a war on a tactic. Cedarford wants to be more honest and wants us to call it what it really is. By now we now this is a war that dare not speak its name for one important reason.

Me against my brother. My brother and myself against our cousin. Our cousin, my brother and myself against my neighbor. . . This is an Arabic saying and if we call the WOT "The War on Radical Islam" then we will turn the rest of the Middle East against us. It is a delicate matter and words do matter. Look at all the hoopla over "Infinite Justice" or what happens when any mention of the word crusade happens in the public pronouncements of our officials.