Zeno said “It’s a triple euphemism. It is not “War on Radical Islam”, it is “War on Islam”, simply that…We might not be at war with Islam, but Islam is at war with us. Now why is it so hard to say it?”

Talk about playing into our opponents hands. Imagine the field day they’d have with that statement on al Jazeera.

Message matters.

As Walid Phares says, we are at war with Jihadist Islam. Hardly all Muslims buy into this. Many if not most don’t.

So we are in a war against the jihad. The modern jihadists have restored the ages-old conflict between Islam and everyone else. It is a “Clash of Civlilzations,” as Samuel Huntington put it, but that doesn’t mean every single Muslim is engaged in the clash.

Now, the ones who don’t are cowed into silence by the jihadists. One of our goals should be to empower the Muslim opponents of Jihad. We are in a War of Ideas as much as a war of bullets and bombs, and we must be smart in our message. We must also support Muslim dissidents (yes there are lots of them) just as we supported dissidents in the Soviet Union.

Besides, how do you win a “War on Islam?” Kill tens or hundreds of millions? Force them into servitude? Wall off Islamic countries?