In the Washington Post, Zbigniew Brzezinski complains about Bush’s choice of words. Other than asserting that we’d be better off not identifying our enemy and comparing an international terrorist organization bent on our destruction with country-specific terrorist groups that don’t threaten our national security, this is perfectly sound advice:
It is particularly troubling that Bush has . . . relied heavily in his recent speeches on what to many Muslims is bound to sound like Islamophobic language. His speeches, though occasionally containing disclaimers that he is not speaking of Islam as a whole, have been replete with references to “the murderous ideology of the Islamic radicals,” “Islamic radicalism,” “militant jihadism,” “Islamofascism” or “Islamic Caliphate.”
Such phraseology can have unintended consequences. Instead of mobilizing moderate Muslims to stand by our side, the repetitive refrain about Islamic terrorism may not only offend moderate Muslims but could eventually contribute to a perception that the campaign against terrorism is also a campaign against Islam as a whole. They may note that the United States, in condemning IRA terrorism in Northern Ireland or Basque terrorism in Spain, does not describe it as “Catholic terrorism,” a phrase that Catholics around the world would likely find offensive.
Jimmy Carter, Ramsey Clark, and Zbigniew Brzezinski. They all deserve one another. Thank God Reagan was elected in 1980.
Well, it helps that the terrorists in Ireland gave themselves an name: the IRA. It’s amazing how the relativism of the Left leaves it incapable of identifying evil or enemies.
Wake me when someone on the left has an original thought. Yet again we are being lectured by some leftist know-it-all about offending the delicate sensibilities of the Muslim world. It’s interesting that those on the left are apparently only concerned with how words spoken by Republicans play in the Muslim world, while they continue to deny that their defeatist, “we can’t win” schtick undermines our efforts.
Goodness knows we have to be extraordinarily sensitive to Muslim sensitivities… They are so prone to take out their anger by beheading someone or blowing up a school.
I really enjoyed taking Dr. Brzezinski’s courses when I was at Columbia University back in the 1980’s.
It’s my impression that he’s nearing retirement and is feeling a bit out of the loop, hence his more recent predilection to criticize Bush.
He’s certainly not a loony tune like his former boss Jimmy.