THE GRAND ILLUSION – AT 9:11 A.M. ET:  They never learn, do they?  The United States Government continues its fiction that, in the war on global terror, we are fighting generic terrorists who have no backgrounds.  From the Washington Times:

Two new documents laying out the Obama administration's defense and homeland security strategy over the next four years describe the nation's terrorist enemies in a number of ways but fail to mention the words Islam, Islamic or Islamist.

Hey, it's just like those foreign-born but culturally respected pilots over Pearl Harbor on a Sunday morning.

The 108-page Quadrennial Homeland Security Review, made public last week by the Department of Homeland Security, uses the term "terrorist" a total of 66 times, "al Qaeda" five times and "violent extremism" or "extremist" 14 times. It calls on the U.S. government to "actively engage communities across the United States" to "stop the spread of violent extremism."

Any communities, any at all.  I suggest we start with the Amish in Pennsylvania.  Threat to the peace, I tell you.

Yet in describing terrorist threats against the United States and the ideology that motivates terrorists, the review - like its sister document from the Pentagon, the Quadrennial Defense Review - does not use the words "Islam," "Islamic" or "Islamist" a single time.

Although the homeland security official in charge of developing the review insists it was a not a deliberate decision, the document is likely to reignite a debate over terminology in the U.S.-led war against al Qaeda that has been simmering through two administrations.

COMMENT:  Reignite?  It's been burning for some time.  We continue with the illusions of this administration. 

February 12, 2010