A recent analysis of the 2010 QDR by the Center for American Progress claims, “…the 2010 QDR abandons the Bush administration’s “Long War” construct that oversimplified the nature of the struggle against violent extremists.” This claim implies that the QDR clarified the nature of this conflict. The QDR doesn’t even accurately identify the threat. It does not acknowledge that there is an international campaign led by Islamic extremists to kill Americans. I realize that it’s not politically correct to identify threats without obfuscation, but the failure to identify the source of this threat in the QDR is troubling. The terms “violent extremism” and “extremism” are generalities. Al Qaeda is more specific but it is simply a way to skirt…
Posts Tagged ‘Political Correctness’
Nidal Malik Hasan and The Perils of Political Correctness
From The Houston Chronicle:
Federal law enforcement officials told the Associated Press that Hasan had come to their attention at least six months ago because of Internet postings that discussed suicide bombings and other threats.
One of the Web posts that authorities reviewed is a blog that equates suicide bombers with a soldier throwing himself on a grenade to save the lives of his comrades.
“To say that this soldier committed suicide is inappropriate. Its more appropriate to say he is a brave hero that sacrificed his life for a more noble cause,” said the Internet posting. “Scholars have paralled (sic) this to suicide bombers whose intention, by sacrificing their lives, is to help…
Overseas Contingency Operation
Overseas Contingency Operation–that’s the Obama administration’s new name for the conflict formerly known as the Global War on Terror (GWOT). Perhaps GWOT wasn’t the best descriptor for the global conflict against Islamic Extremism, but it seemed to capture the key elements (such as the scope of the conflict and adversary). If anything, it lacked specificity in that it did not identify the adversary as clearly as it could have. From FOXNews.com:
The Obama administration has ordered an end to use of the phrase “Global War on Terror,” a label adopted by the Bush administration shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday.
In a memo sent this week from the Defense Department’s office of security…