Out: 'War on Terror'; In: 'Enduring Struggle Against Terrorism'

It has such a subtle nuance to it.

During the past seven years, the "War Against Terror" or "War on Terror" came to represent everything the U.S. military was doing in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the broader effort against extremists elsewhere or those seen as aiding militants aimed at destroying the West.

Ultimately and perhaps inadvertently, however, the phrase "became associated in the minds of many people outside the Unites States and particularly in places where the countries are largely Islamic and Arab, as being anti-Islam and anti-Arab," said Anthony Cordesman, a national security analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.

Now, he said, there is a sense that the U.S. should be talking more about specific extremist groups — ones that are recognized as militants in the Arab world and that are viewed as threats not just to America or the West, but also within the countries they operate.

The thinking has evolved, he said, to focus on avoiding the kind of rhetoric "which could imply that this was a struggle against a religion or a culture."

Obama has made it clear in his first days in office that he is courting the Muslim community and making what is at least a symbolic shift away from the previous administration's often more combative tone.

He chose an Arab network for his first televised interview, declaring that "Americans are not your enemy." Before his first full week in office ended, he named former Sen. George J. Mitchell as his special envoy for the Middle East and sent him to the region for talks with leaders.

Seems as if the next four years will be an enduring struggle against fecklessness.

Nick “Pop” Popaditch on Red Eye (VIDEO)

Ret. USMC Gunnery Sgt., Nick Popaditch was on Red Eye last night, and he talked about his book and website, "Once a Marine." Gunny Pop is a true hero, enlisting in the Marines in 1986. He's got a powerful story to tell, and I was so pleased to see him on as a guest last night.



Gunny was in Desert Shield, Desert Storm, and Operation Iraqi Freedom. During the battle for Fallujah, Gunny was hit in the head by an RPG, and lost his right eye. He's got a very cool prosthetic eye, although I'm sure he'd like to have his real eye back, but he's got a gold Marine Corps. eagle emblem emblazoned on that prosthesis.

Good stuff! God bless ya, Gunny. I hope to see more of you on TV soon. America needs to see more of our troops, and I couldn't think of a more cool guy to represent our military men and women than Gunny.

No Way, No How, No Bounce

Dude, where's Obama's poll bounce? Sure, maybe it'll materialize eventually, but so far nothing.

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Wednesday shows Barack Obama and John McCain each attracting 44% of the vote for the second straight day. When "leaners" are included, though, McCain picked up another point since yesterday and now has a statistically insignificant one-point advantage over Obama, 47% to 46%.

This is the first time since August 9 that McCain has held any advantage over Obama. The candidates have been within two points of each other on every day but two for the past month.
...
On a partisan basis, 82% of Republican voters say America is winning the War on Terror, just 34% of Democrats agree.

What do those numbers show you?

In other grim news for Democrats, 54% of Americans now think we're winning the war on terror.

In an related unscientific poll conducted by JWF Associates, 100% of the the tattered remnants of Al Qaeda also believe the United States is winning, while 99% of the media is praying for defeat.

War on Something or Other

How are we supposed to fight an enemy bent on our destruction when we can't even figure out what to call the war itself?

U.S., British officials drop 'war on terror'

British bureaucrats and U.S. lawmakers are abandoning the phrases "war on terror" and "long war" as the Bush administration redefines the battle against al Qaeda as a global war of ideology against a network of terrorists.

"I recognize that using the term 'war' with respect to the struggle we're engaged in makes some people uncomfortable," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told students during a speech Thursday at Johns Hopkins University.

"We have to recognize we are fighting members of a movement and an ideology that seeks to advance a totalitarian world vision around the globe," he said. "And if we don't understand that and contend in the field of ideology, we cannot really match this enemy across the entire spectrum of the challenge."

The change in rhetoric began in March, when the Pentagon quietly ditched the phrase "long war." Last month, Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee decreed they would no longer use the phrases "war on terror" and "long war."

Obviously, the Democrats owuld prefer to capitulate and surrender if it means gaining even one House or Senate seat. But the administration and Chertoff need to show some stones and call it what it is: A war against Islamofascism.

Surrendering The War on Terror

Adam Brodsky points out the obvious today. Many seem to want to give up the fight against the Islamofascist monsters without acknowledging that the enemy is not quite ready to stop fighting.

Ever.

The War on Terror is over. Or, at least, the West seems to be declaring it so.

We've had enough.

There's been too much hostility. Too many lives lost; too many civil liberties trampled on. Too many Muslims offended.

So we're pulling out. We'll just have to "dialogue" more - and fight less.

Who sees any chance of winning militarily, anyhow? We'll have to work things out "politically" instead - offering "flexibility" and a willingness to compromise with the enemy.

Just one little problem: The enemy has yet to sign on to ending the war.

They have no desire to compromise or stand down - and no intention to do so.

We may declare the war over - but they won't. Ever.

Therein lies the main obstacle to ever achieving peace in our lifetimes. We face a bloodthirsty enemy hellbent on destroying us while simultaneously battling the left and the media who think if we just talk to them enough, they'll understand we all want to sing Kumbaya and they will lay down their arms.

Never going to happen.

They say so openly. Repeatedly. And backs up their words with horrific proof.

Still, we pretend - at our peril - that we can just withdraw and declare the war over. Consider the West's record of the past few weeks:

* Democrats keep setting surrender dates in Iraq, even as they fail to provide funding for U.S. troops there. As if our retreat won't plunge the Middle East into disaster - with consequences for America soon to follow.

* House Speaker Nancy Pelosi treats with Syria, a chief sponsor of terror. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) says he's dying to yuk it up with the thugs in Iran.

* Tehran, meanwhile, holds 15 British sailors hostage for two weeks - and Britain, once the greatest naval power on earth, does . . . nothing.

* Italy gets Afghanistan to release five Taliban captives in exchange for an Italian journalist, signaling that kidnappings pay. (After the Italian's released, the butchers slit the throat of his Afghan colleague.)

* Congress greenlights millions in funding for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas - even though he has partnered with Hamas, a ruthless terror organization.

* President Bush brags about "progress" in blocking foreigners from illegally entering the country, even though - five years after 9/11 - tens of thousands continue to hop the border every month.

* Mike Bloomberg - the mayor of the city where the World Trade Center towered, until terrorists siezed [sic] those aircraft on 9/11 - says there's nothing wrong with retaining a city human-rights commissioner who's actively aiding the attempt by "the flying imams" to deter Americans from reporting suspicious behavior.

* A report in Britain says teachers there are scrapping lessons on the Holocaust and the Crusades, so as not to offend Muslims who deny the historical record.

* A former U.S. national security adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, argues in The Washington Post that damage caused merely by the phrase "War on Terror" is "infinitely greater than any wild dreams entertained by the fanatical perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks."

* Iran announces (maybe falsely, but who knows?) that it can now enrich uranium at an industrial pace - and the world yawns.

* Israel considers the release of scores of Palestinian prisoners, even ones with blood on their hands, in exchange for an Israeli soldier.

These strong signs that we're losing the will to fight are sure to encourage terrorists and boost the odds that they'll launch new strikes against us.

If a Democrat takes the White House in 2008, no doubt he or she will signal further willingness to have dialogue with our enemies, who will only laugh and attack us further.

We must unleash the full fury of our military might against the enemy worldwide and utterly destroy them. Until we do, we face a bleak future.

Terror Database Quadruples

The Washington Post notes today how terror watch lists are compiled using massive amounts of data, but of course, they seem to lament both how difficult the job is and how privacy may be violated.

TIDE has also created concerns about secrecy, errors and privacy. The list marks the first time foreigners and U.S. citizens are combined in an intelligence database. The bar for inclusion is low, and once someone is on the list, it is virtually impossible to get off it. At any stage, the process can lead to "horror stories" of mixed-up names and unconfirmed information, Travers acknowledged.

Sure, errors are possible, but wouldn't the Washington Post be leading the charges that we didn't connect the dots were another terror attack to occur?

Then they bring up the media's favorite Islamic convert, the cretin formerly known as Cat Stevens, who apparently is being confused with a U.S. senator's wife.

Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) said last year that his wife had been delayed repeatedly while airlines queried whether Catherine Stevens was the watch-listed Cat Stevens. The listing referred to the Britain-based pop singer who converted to Islam and changed his name to Yusuf Islam. The reason Islam is not allowed to fly to the United States is secret.

In the end, this process is a necessity in this day and age, and if the media laments that there may be problems compiling and sorting the massive amounts of data, they should be leading the charge to have funding increased for the program, rather than denigrating it and dredging up some relatively minor problems.

Dueling Surrender Plans

If the Democrats actually worked this hard at helping prosecute the war in Iraq, perhaps the job would be finished much faster and we could divert resources elsewhere in the War on Terror. Instead, they continue to seek ways to lose. This current scheme is doomed to failure and would be vetoed anyway.

Democrats offer 2 plans for pullout

Senate and House Democrats yesterday announced competing legislation that for the first time would set deadlines to withdraw all combat troops from Iraq -- by fall 2008 -- provoking a veto threat from the White House.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said her chamber's measure, which accelerates the timetable for a pullout if the administration fails to certify that Iraq has met certain benchmarks for progress, will be attached to the nearly $100 billion in supplemental spending that President Bush is seeking this year for fighting in Iraq and in Afghanistan.

"Our bill calls for the redeployment of U.S. troops out of Iraq so that we can focus more fully on the real war on terror, which is in Afghanistan," the California Democrat said.

It's not just in Afghanistan, Stretch, it's worldwide.

Still, no matter what cockamamie plan they conjure up, they're being dragged down by their lunatic fringe on the far left, as noted in the Opinion Journal today.

The meltdown among House Democrats over Iraq is rightly being described as the first big test of Nancy Pelosi's leadership. It's also an early example of just how much political damage the antiwar left is capable of inflicting on their new speaker.

Ms. Pelosi has been backed into a tight corner over President Bush's $100 billion request for war funding. Hoping to quell a revolt from a liberal bloc that wants out of Iraq, pronto, the speaker unveiled a new, new plan yesterday that includes a timetable for withdrawal--to begin as early as July. Ms. Pelosi needs to win this vote, the first real showdown over Iraq. But it's becoming increasingly clear she can do that only by sacrificing her moderate wing, which opposes her plan and could pay heavily for it in next year's election.

We can only hope that will be the case.

Hollywood Too Timid in War on Terror?

The answer to that question is a resounding yes, according to author Andrew Klavan. Considering the absurd study noted yesterday, this puts the craven cowardice of Hollywood into clear focus.

I RECENTLY attended "FBI 101," a G-man seminar for Hollywood writers. I do this kind of thing a lot: law enforcement seminars, ride-alongs, citizen academies and the like. It's a simple deal. The writers get information and research contacts; the lawdogs get a fighting chance at being portrayed realistically and maybe, on occasion, even sympathetically.

Now, in my case, the federales were preaching to the converted. Any agency with a record of battling gangsters, communists and dirty pols can show up as good guys in my work anytime. And never mind just their record. Since 9/11 — chastened by blunders from within and above — the FBI has reinvented itself as a thin gray line against Islamic terrorism. Pulling 16-hour days, volunteering for repeated tours of duty at FBI outposts in the Middle East, constantly aware that their failures will be remembered when their successes are forgotten, the G-people are clearly heroes.

But if they're hoping that their seminar will win them props from filmmakers in general — a picture or two celebrating their courageous work in the war on terror — I suspect they are going to be disappointed. In the history of our time as told by the movies, the war on terror largely does not exist.

Which is passing strange, you know. Because the war on terror is the history of our time. The outcome of our battle against the demographic, political and military upsurge of a hateful theology and its oppressive political vision will determine the fate of freedom in this century.

Television — more populist, hungrier for content and less dependent on foreign audiences — reflects this fact with shows such as "24" and "The Unit." But at the movies, all we're getting is home-front angst and the occasional "Syriana," in which "moderate" Islam is thwarted by evil American interests. But the notion that this war is about our moral failings is comfort fantasy, pure and simple. It soothes us with the false idea that, if we but mend ourselves, the scary people will leave us alone.

Read the rest.

The Hollywood that exists these days is in many cases interested strictly in ideology. No matter how many box office bombs the likes of Clooney, Penn and Robbins deliver, they never seem to learn their lesson.