It is NOT a War on Terror!

Today on one cable television news network George Clooney acknowledged and defended the sympathetic treatment of Muslim terrorists in the movie Syriana (I have not seen the movie, but this was the subject of the report). While this is not a direct quote, Mr. Clooney mimicked an argument advanced by liberals and appeasers everywhere by saying that if we are going to fight a "war on terror" we must understand what causes people to become terrorists, and that Syriana helps to advance that "understanding." I guess, as the logic goes, becoming more sympathetic to those who engage in terrorism will cause them to stop blowing people up. I wonder, will Mr. Clooney will next star in a movie encouraging a greater sympathy for Timothy McVeigh or Ted Kaczynski so we can better understand the conditions that caused them to engage in acts of terrorism.

I don't want to pick a fight with George Clooney on his comment (it would be unfair to him, and I would feel guilty). My point here is broader - we are not in a war on terrorism! Terrorism is a tactic, not an enemy. It has recently been used as a euphemism to refer to the current war against radical Muslim jihadists. People, including President Bush, are too uncomfortable to identify the enemy, so they instead identify the tactic used by the enemy and portray it as the enemy. The danger in using the "euphemism" is that it causes a misunderstanding of who our enemy is, and it contributes to a false dialogue on the war.

We are at war with radical Muslim jihadists who use terrorism as a tactic. Calling the current war with radical Muslim jihadists a "war on terror" is a little like calling WWI a "war on trenches."