NAMING THE ENEMY - The president's war speech, by John Podhoretz
New York Post ^ | October 7, 2005 | John Podhoretz
The War on Terror has always been an imprecise term, a vague placeholder for the real name of the conflict into which we have been unwillingly plunged. In a landmark speech he delivered yesterday, President Bush made it plain for the first time, really, that our enemy is not "terror" per se but something far more complex and therefore far more difficult to defeat....
And while he quickly followed that ground-breaking sentence with one assuring his listeners that "this ideology is very different from the religion of Islam," there's no mistaking that, four years into the War on Terror, the president and his people have finally decided that the use of euphemism is counterproductive.
This was a necessary change in emphasis, because the arguments in favor of the broader War on Terror have been obscured by the failure to make reference to the specifically Islamist nature of the existential threat posed to the United States, the West and the world....
Bush went on to explain that the goals are "fanatical and extreme — and they should not be dismissed. Our enemy is utterly committed."
To what, exactly? He elaborated: "The militants believe that controlling one country will rally the Muslim masses, enabling them to overthrow all moderate governments in the region, and establish a radical Islamic empire that spans from Spain to Indonesia. With greater economic and military and political power, the terrorists would be able to advance their stated agenda: to develop weapons of mass destruction, to destroy Israel, to intimidate Europe, to assault the American people, and to blackmail our government into isolation."...
This speech, one of the longest and most detailed of his presidency, is so rich and nuanced that it can't be done justice in this space. Do yourself a favor... and read the whole thing....
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ... |
