Tex the Pontificator

Until recently one of my labels for posts was "war on terror." Reading leftist criticism of the war brought back to mind my earlier view that the phrase "war on terror" was probably chosen by the Bush administration for political reasons and was calculated to obscure what is really happening. What we are really doing is resisting an anti-western jihad by some elements of the Muslim world. For that reason, I shifted the label to "jihad."

I do not mean to criticize the Bush administration for the circumlocution. The government must balance many concerns. Calling resistance to jihad what it actually is may alienate potential allies in the Muslim world. At least the possibility seems logical, so I am willing to give Bush a pass for obfuscating what may be in the interests of the U.S. to obfuscate at least some of the time.

But I'm not the government and have no need to mince words. I believe calling things what they really are contributes to clarity of thought. Hence the "jihad" label.

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Labels: jihad