A well-placed White House person assured someone I know not so long ago that the President is "well aware" that Islam is not a religion of peace. When the war began, I understood the "religion of peace" rhetoric. It was important to assure moderate Muslims that we're not fighting a war against Islam --that in spite of what they hear on al-Jazeera, this ain't a crusade. Equally, I supposed that preaching Islam as a religion of peace might hearten some Muslims who believe it is that and heighten their influence among their brothers in religion.
But surely by now we've seen that tack ain't working? The Christians of the Holy Land begged us in the West (when I was there a month ago) to tell the truth about Islam; the Holy Father's got the Vatican on a speak truth to Muslims course. Isn't it time for us to do the same? Mark Steyn thinks our failure to do so is part of the reason many on the right are uneasy about the war these days.
Government leaders are essentially telling their citizens: Who ya gonna believe -- my platitudinous speechwriters or your lyin' eyes? To win a war, you don't spin a war. Millions of ordinary citizens are not going to stick with a "long war" (as the administration now calls it) if they feel they're being dissembled to about its nature.
As examples of the kind of rhetoric that's called for, Steyn has some great lines from various Australians (if you don't love Oz after reading them, you have no heart), and then invokes Reagan:
My worry is that the official platitudes in this new war are the equivalent of the Cold War chit-chat in its 1970s detente phase --when Willy Brandt and Pierre Trudeau and Jimmy Carter pretended the enemy was not what it was. Then came Ronald Reagan: It wasn't just the evil-empire stuff, his jokes were on the money, too. In their own depraved way, the Islamists are a lot goofier than the commies and a few gags wouldn't come amiss. If this is a "long war," it needs a rhetoric that can go the distance. And the present line fails that test.
Now what joke do you suppose he's thinking of? I'm thinking it was Reagan's mike test:
Testing. Testing. The bombing begins in 5 minutes.
What could Bush say to that effect? One thing I've always thought we should do is mock the dubious piety of the suicide bombers (remember how Atta & his boys spent Sept.10 boozing it up?). Not that the Prez should tell this joke, but we should start circulating things like: Why should you always take two jihadists with you on your camping trip? 'Cause if you take just one, he'll drink all your beer. . . . Curtsy to ninme for the link.
Update: See what you get for being lazy? Ninme has what Reagan really said in the mike test. Much better than the way I remembered it.
