G
gilliam
Guest
I was in the hall at the Ronald Reagan Building (irony: Washington’s largest federal building is named after the president who said government was the problem not the solution) when George W. Bush delivered his speech to the National Endowment for Democracy. It was originally scheduled for September 11 and postponed because of Hurricane Katrina.
It was an excellent speech, well received by the audience. I won’t attempt a complete analysis, but I think it did three things Bush has not done before.
First, he identified the source of the terrorism we are fighting against. “Some call this evil Islamic radicalism; others, militant jihadism; still others, Islamofascism.” (Score one for Christopher Hitchens, who I believe invented the term Islamofascism.) Of course Bush went on to say, quite rightly, “Whatever it’s called, this ideology is very different from the religion of Islam.” To the best of my memory, Bush previously has not been willing to describe what we are fighting against as “Islamic” radicalism, presumably out of fear of angering Muslims or of providing fodder for claiming that we are fighting a war against Islam.
usnews.com/usnews/opinion/baroneblog/columns/barone_051007.htm
It was an excellent speech, well received by the audience. I won’t attempt a complete analysis, but I think it did three things Bush has not done before.
First, he identified the source of the terrorism we are fighting against. “Some call this evil Islamic radicalism; others, militant jihadism; still others, Islamofascism.” (Score one for Christopher Hitchens, who I believe invented the term Islamofascism.) Of course Bush went on to say, quite rightly, “Whatever it’s called, this ideology is very different from the religion of Islam.” To the best of my memory, Bush previously has not been willing to describe what we are fighting against as “Islamic” radicalism, presumably out of fear of angering Muslims or of providing fodder for claiming that we are fighting a war against Islam.
usnews.com/usnews/opinion/baroneblog/columns/barone_051007.htm