Martin Peretz writes about the war on terror in the current New Republic. He says, inter alia:
What the Bush administration gradually came to realize was that fighting the Muslim terrorist international could not be done in a vacuum.
Even if one agrees that Al-Qaeda and their allies are a 'terrorist international' (they are certainly less organised than the Communist version), it sounds very wrong to describe them as the "Muslim terrorist international". That infelicitous phrase implies some sort of sponsorship arrangement on behalf of the hundreds of millions of Muslims who want nothing to do with bin Laden.
To compare a similar case, would the IRA have been called "the Catholic terrorist organisation"? Or - perhaps even more like the current situation - would ETA, the IRA, the Red Brigades have been banded together as a "Catholic terrorist international"?
Bin Laden and his ilk are terrorists, are Muslims, and are - at least perhaps - an 'international'. But then again, they all have beards and read the Koran. Can we settle on 'beardy terrorist international'?
6:03:25 PM
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