Carol Platt Liebau: To Name It Is To Know It

Sunday, August 13, 2006

To Name It Is To Know It

As this astute British op/ed points out, President Bush has begun referring to Islamic fascism we're fighting as "Islamic fascism" -- and all the usual suspects are lining up to condemn him for doing so, arguing that it constitutes "name calling."

Well, I'm against "name calling" but I'm in favor of calling things by their names -- and what we're battling isn't "terror." "Terror" is an internal emotion akin to a sharper, more sudden fear. "Terror" isn't trying to blow up airplanes, and "terror" isn't who we're fighting. We are fighting men (and perhaps women) who are in the grip of Islamic fascism.

And rather than suggesting that the stigma of terrorist behavior is shared by all Muslims (as the term "fascistic Muslims" might), "Islamic fascism" emphasizes that what we're seeing isn't so much a religion as merely the newest form of what President Bush once called "the heirs of all the murderous ideologies of the 20th century," who, "by sacrificing human life to serve their radical visions -- by abandoning every value except the will to power . . . follow in the path of fascism, and Nazism, and totalitarianism."

In other words, the religion isn't the issue: It's the same old ugly totalitarian impulse, with radical Islam as its newest guise.

4 Comments:

Blogger Marshal Art said...

Well, in the spirit of calling things by their names, editor's position is idiocy personified. He has taken it to new heights with every post. It's only insulting to Muslims who support the wackjobs we're trying to eliminate. But editor has a problem with seeing which is which.

10:30 PM  
Blogger eLarson said...

as the US kills so many of them

I think you'll find that Muslmis have killed far more of their own than any other outsider. Do the math.

5:30 AM  
Blogger Marshal Art said...

editor,

That number is in dispute and remember also, that if the wackjob Islamofascists laid down their weapons, there would be no deaths. It's as simple as that. Don't blame George for what a group of lunatics have caused. Oh wait...I'm sorry...that's just what you like to do---blame Bush. Get help for your BDS.

6:44 PM  
Blogger eLarson said...

President Bush has begun referring to Islamic fascism we're fighting as "Islamic fascism"

He has also stopped. I last heard him pause and choose the words "extreme bunch of folks" instead.

9:42 AM  

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