By JOHN P. AVLON
Posted: 4:33 am
October 11, 2008
HERE'S a wake-up call for a nation at war: We've had all but one of the presidential debates, plus the veep debate - without once hearing the words "Islamic terrorism."
Seven years after 9/11, we still seem to be debating whether it's polite to name our enemy directly. Worse, the emerging consensus seems to be "no."
That is not a good sign. How is the next leader of the free world going to solve a problem he can't even name?
Yes, the economy is by far the most urgent issue - but that doesn't make the war any less serious.
In their first debate, meant to center on foreign policy, John McCain and Barack Obama focused on the tactical fronts (Iraq, Afghanistan and the cold war with Iran) or specific enemies (al Qaeda, the Taliban, Hezbollah). But neither mentioned the underlying geo-strategic conflict between Western civilization and jihadism.
As dissident and exile Ayaan Hirsi Ali told me, "The presidential candidates are focused on military and intelligence positions, but I patiently wait for them to define the ideology they are going up against - because it's also a war of ideas. . . The collectivist Islamist system is not just wrong, but opposed to the American way of life."
This skittishness about naming our enemy directly is consistent with the 20-plus debates of the Democratic primaries, where discomfort with saying "Islamic terrorism" led to its absence from the dialogue.
Which raises the question: Who are we afraid of offending?
For clarity's sake, consider the term coined by former New York Sun reporter Eli Lake: "Islamic supremacists." It fairly describes the enemy's violent intolerance of difference and absolutist worldview - and shouldn't offend mainstream Muslims any more than "white supremacists" offends white people.
Since the opening hours of this war, US officials have strenuously emphasized that our enemy is not Islam, but Islamist terrorists. America's millions of Muslim citizens are vital allies in this effort - evidence of freedom's opportunities for equality and success.
And we've formed (sometimes uneasy) coalitions with Arab countries that face a similar existential threat from fundamentalists who want to restore the caliphate. The Anbar Awakening of Sunni tribal leaders in Iraq against al Qaeda was evidence of this approach's success.
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