"We are not fighting a war on terror," I said then, "any more than we fought a war on blitzkrieg in World War II."
Blitzkrieg, of course, was a tactic. So is terrorism. In World War II, we fought against German Nazism, Japanese Imperialism and Italian Fascism - militarist, totalitarian ideologies that governed these societies and motivated believers elsewhere to rally and spread these movements across the globe. Terrorism isn't a governing philosophy or organizing principle. It is simply a means to achieve an ideological end, in this case the spread of radical Islam.
I am sure Franklin Roosevelt's candid portrayal of our World War II enemies offended many Germans, Italians and Japanese. But did this motivate our own recent immigrants from enemy countries to oppose America and the war? A few perhaps, but thousands of these patriots who came here for liberty joined our armed forces or the effort on the home front and defended it. My father, an 18-year-old Italian immigrant when the war broke out, was one of them.
But isn't it accurate to say we are at war with terrorists? Yes, but misleading. We are not at war with Colombia's FARC, Rwanda's FDLR rebels, or Spain's Basque separatists. We are at war only with terrorists motivated by Islam who view themselves as true followers, as self-described holy warriors.
At a White House meeting after my press club remarks, I handed the president my speech and told him I thought that we were more apt to lose this war in the streets of America than on the streets of Baghdad. We had to start winning the communications battle at home, and part of that involved coming clean with Americans about whom precisely we are fighting. I suggested, for example, that he abandon the word terror and replace it with Islamic fascism.
