The War We Are Fighting Needs A More Accurate Name

by Dennis Prager - May 9, 2006 - TownHall.com

To understand what Americans are fighting, it is necessary to first understand that we are not fighting a "War on Terror." We are no more fighting a "War on Terror" than we fought a "War on Kamikazes" in World War II. Of course we had to stop Kamikaze attacks, the suicide crashing by Japanese pilots of airplanes into American war ships. But we were fighting Japanese fascism and imperialism.

The same holds true today. We are fighting Islamic fascism and imperialism (though surely not all Muslims).

The most important question about this article is a realistic assessment of the consequences for the war if the average Muslim is confused by any new name we choose. George Bush, and many of the advisers that persuaded him to adopt the phrase in support of the war that the neo-cons urged him to undertake, rightly understood that winning this war would be tougher if the average Muslim thought it was a religious war. It is not important just to make sure it is not a religious war. It is important that the average Muslim understand that. Otherwise when we win we are simply sowing the seeds for the next war, just as has happened so many times before.

Several writers have suggested "islamofascist" as a name for the war. In this article, Prager mentions, "Islamic fascism", but suggests also "radical Islam," "militant Islam" or "Islamist". However his thesis is in support of a new term based on the theory that the war is rooted in "Islamic imperialism".

He mentions one source of the new term when he says "My working definition of imperialism is that of University of London professor Efraim Karsh, whose recent book, 'Islamic Imperialism' (Yale University Press), is one of the few indispensable books on Islam."

I support changing the name for an important reason. The original reason for the term "war on terror" as the name for this war, however valid its intention may have been, failed to appreciate the undermining effect on the American populace. The ambiguity of the "war on terror" term is helping the anti-war (and anti-American) crowd to weaken American resolve. As long as we continue to fight against the "islamofascists" or the "islamic imperialists" and are carefull not to make war on the moderate Muslims, we can rally Americans behind a clear target. That is why we need a clear name, to rally Americans. I believe we should deal in some other way with the risk of inflaming Muslim moderates than calling this war by a confusing name.