During his appearance on CNN’s Piers Morgan show, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld admitted that the phrase ‘War on Terror’ was a misnomer when the question was forthrightly posed by Morgan. After admitting that he thought the label was a mistake, Rumsfeld then explained why:
“(Terror) is a technique, it’s a method. The purpose of terrorism is to terrorize.”
This admission almost ten years after 9/11 should be an outrage to Americans who have known that to be true before we ever went into Iraq. Based on Rumsfeld’s words, the Bush administration knew the truth before one American boot set foot in Afghanistan. Conservatives in significant numbers began studying Islam and reached similar conclusions. Yet, leaders who obviously knew better chose cowardice cloaked in another nebulous phrase – political correctness.
To be fair to Rumsfeld, he then told Morgan that he expressed his disagreement with the label to the Bush administration at the time but that it was ultimately the President’s call.
Presumably, the logic was that it would be more detrimental to alienate “peaceful Muslims” by putting an actual face on the real enemy. Rumsfeld’s words indicate that the administration was not ignorant of the real threat; it simply chose a road it thought would lead to the threading of a political needle with nuance and word games. Many Americans rightfully knew what such roads are paved with and where they lead.
Think about that. The George W. Bush administration knew who the enemy was and consciously chose not to identify it.
Though it was late in the game, the closest the administration came to making the admission it had bent over backwards to avoid was in a courtroom. Had Bush treated the Holy Land Foundation trial as a victory in a larger war, the true enemy of America revealed in that trial – the Muslim Brotherhood – would have been forced out of the shadows. Instead, our leaders willfully attempted to keep its people in the dark.
Though the outcome of that trial has been a consistent thorn in the side of groups like CAIR, ISNA, MSA and others, it could have been a wooden stake in the proverbial heart of their parent.
It was an opportunity to put our boot on the throat of America’s real enemy. Instead, leadership punted. The greater transgression was that the truth was known but avoided in the days after 9/11.
There are many clear and present dangers to western civilization today. The Islamic one is being exacerbated by the current administration; the Muslim Brotherhood is rapidly gobbling up Middle Eastern countries on Barack Obama’s watch.
Yes, it’s easy for unelected citizens to say such things. After all, we don’t have the weight of the position on our shoulders.
That’s why it’s called leadership and that’s why the next President of the United States must identify the enemy as a condition of being nominated. That enemy should be identified with two words, not one.
Ben Barrack is a talk show host on KTEM 1400 in Texas and maintains a website at www.benbarrack.com
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