The Aggressor gets the naming rights to the War until we defeat him
The guy who starts the war gets the naming rights to the war — until he loses, that is. We can call this conflict the Global War on Terror. We can call it Uncle Joe’s Diner if we like. It doesn’t matter. We were the ones who were attacked. It’s a little like the situation in a lawsuit: we are the respondent; the action already has a name. The attacker declares what the war is all about and what consitutes victory. Until we defeat him, our naming of the war is irrelevant.
If our enemy wins, we know well what the name of the war was: Jihad against the Infidel, an Islamist Muslim Holy War against the United States and her allies. Lest you forget, here is an excerpt from the Declaration of War of February 23, 1998:
[I]n compliance with God’s order, we issue the following fatwa to all Muslims
The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies–civilians and military–is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy mosque from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim. This is in accordance with the words of Almighty God, “and fight the pagans all together as they fight you all together,” and “fight them until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there prevail justice and faith in God.”
This is in addition to the words of Almighty God “And why should ye not fight in the cause of God and of those who, being weak, are ill-treated and oppressed–women and children, whose cry is ‘Our Lord, rescue us from this town, whose people are oppressors; and raise for us from thee one who will help!’”
We — with God’s help — call on every Muslim who believes in God and wishes to be rewarded to comply with God’s order to kill the Americans and plunder their money wherever and whenever they find it. We also call on Muslim ulema, leaders, youths, and soldiers to launch the raid on Satan’s U.S. troops and the devil’s supporters allying with them….
Now you have read that. Now tell us: who are we in a war with?
There is an awful lot of hand-wringing and bending over backwards to stress that we are not in a war with Islam. Fair enough; we are not in a war with all of Islam. But those making war on us sure think they are fighting a war specifically on behalf of Islam. Muslim Irshad Manji points to Koranic authority for the War. So does Amir Taheri. Lileks illustrates both a substantive and a rhetorical problem:
There aren’t any good options. They all stink. It’ll take regime change in Syria, a revolution in Iran and a true come-to-Isa moment in Saudi Arabia to get us past this mess. And we need all that to happen, oh, next week. In the meantime, we need big famous friends in the Islamic world willing to disavow the raving clerics and drop a dime on fanatical mosque-mates. Yes, the London imams are a start, but we need so much more – and so much less loose talk of Tancredo’s variety. Thanks to idiot politicians and clueless media figures, our recent PR record is rather mixed, you know. “Uh, we don’t flush Korans, despite what those other guys said. But we’re considering nuking Mecca. But this isn’t a war on Islam. Sort of. Yet.”
Bashing Tancredo is all well and good — but don’t the actions demanded by sober and reasonable James Lileks to take place in Syria, Iran and Saudi Arabia look just a lttle bit like war with Islam?
Our advice is to forget about trying to win a PR war: it ain’t gonna happen. In fact, we can only win the PR war by losing the actual war, since our enemy despises weakness, and this sensitivity business broadcasts weakness like a Muezzin calling the faithful to prayer. Don’t like the Islamic reference? Tough.
Only deeds will win this war, very hard deeds, like the kind being done now by brave Iraqis, as reported in the newspaper Kululiraq (via Powerline):
Iraqis stood for three minutes of silence yesterday in commemoration of the lives lost in the two attacks in Baghdad Aljadedah and Almusaiyab, which claimed 105 martyrs, 32 of whom were children, and 128 wounded of whom 31 were children.
Traffic of thousand of cars stopped in the Allawi & Tahrier area (central Baghdad) as children (from “Baghdad Aljadedah” area) entered “Tahrier” square (with some of the wounded children) carrying Iraqi flags and displaying victory signs in defiance of the terrorists. These children also stood silent for three minutes to commemorate their relatives and friends who died in the homicide bombing attack last week.
Iraqi Prime Minister Dr. Ibrahiem Aljaafary said in a speech regarding this incident: “We will not sway from our path and we will not kneel to those who commit these crimes.” He added, ”We are confident that all nations of this world stand beside us, because to day terrorism does not only affect us Iraqis but the whole world. We Iraqis have the honor of being in the front line in the fight against terrorism.”
Whatever the Iraqis want to name this war, when it is over and they have won, will be just fine with us.