Chip Bok's Bokbluster

For a guy who’s all about narratives President Obama doesn’t seem to think words matter anymore.

He still refuses to use the term “radical Islam“. He says it wouldn’t make any difference. On Tuesday he angrily asked, “What exactly would it accomplish? What exactly would it change?”

The WSJ editorial board thanked him for asking and answered his question:

If the U.S. is under attack, Americans deserve to hear their President say exactly who is attacking us and why. You cannot effectively wage war, much less gauge an enemy’s strengths, without a clear idea of who you are fighting.

Mr. Obama’s refusal to speak of “radical Islam” also betrays his failure to understand the sources of Islamic State’s legitimacy and thus its allure to young Muslim men. The threat is religious and ideological.

Islamic State sees itself as the vanguard of a religious movement rooted in a literalist interpretation of Islamic scriptures that it considers binding on all Muslims everywhere. A small but significant fraction of Muslims agree with that interpretation, which is why Western law enforcement agencies must pay more attention to what goes on inside mosques than in Christian Science reading rooms.