Bill M:
A few days ago one of the Denver radio stations broadcast an alert to the listeners about some criminals who were engaged in some very violent activity, apparently hi-jacking cars in the mid-day. Denver PD had tweeted a description and an appeal for help in finding these guys before somebody got hurt. The description the station broadcast was 6 males in an old brown or tan Toyota. 6 males. Not six white males, black males, hispanic males, but just 6 males. I don't know if "6 males" was what the Denver PD tweeted or if that is what the radio station decided to broadcast but it was done because they were afraid that if they added a race somebody somewhere might have taken offense. In so doing they possibly delayed the sighting and apprehension of the "6 males" because the description given was basically no description at all. That could have gotten people hurt or killed, innocent people. And all because somebody could have taken offense if the apparent race of the suspects was stated.
Now would the radio station or the Denver PD been wrong if they had given the race in the description? No, they would not have been. They would have been acting reasonably and in good faith while attempting to protect innocents from criminals. If anybody had taken offense at an apparent race being added to the description they would have been wrong and the effect of their illegitimate hypersensitivity may have been to get some people hurt who didn't deserve it.
The people we are fighting in this aren't just extremists. They aren't the Red Army Faction nor Aum Shinrikyo nor the practice squad of the Miami Dolphins. They are religious extremists. And they are a particular sub-group of that religion. They are Sunni, wahabi/deobandi and takfiri. They aren't Sufi dervishes. We should make it clear, especially to ourselves, who it is that we must fight because they are trying to kill us. If that makes some Muslims with mouthpieces mad somewhere that's too damn bad. They are wrong for feeling that way. We aren't wrong for stating what is.
The Muslims who would take offense at our stating clearly who it is we are fighting because they are trying to kill us are predisposed to be hostile to us anyway. I have great confidence that a Malaysian shopkeeper will know that when we say we are fighting takfiri killers we don't mean him. Some Saudi Wahabi sub-prince who gets irate at that I don't care about since he probably leaning the wrong way anyway. You can't please everybody.
On our part this will take work and it will take character. It will be work to explain to people the difference between a takfiri killer and a Sufi dervish. And it will take character to withstand the PC attacks that will be launched when that is done. The big problem is the genii inside the beltway may not have the character and, despite their fancy educations, I don't think have the smarts to tell the difference between a takfiri killer and a Ahmadi.
We can't beat the religious interpretation that results in AQ and their ilk. The Muslims have to do that. What we can do is be forthright about the situation and keep killing the attackers until they stop coming for us. Sort of like Jeremiah Johnson just kept killing the braves who came for him until the Crows gave it up. (I stole that from another thread.)
I hear that argument about just doing a punitive expedition in response to 9-11 on occasion. In my view that is sort of simplistic nostalgia. 'Oh if only we had just kicked ass, taken names and gone home none of this would have happened.' We asked MO and the boys to turn over AQ. They wouldn't. If we had done a punitive strike they would have all gone to Pakistan to hide under the skirts of the Pak Army/ISI, which is what they did anyway, to come back when we left. Which is what they will try to do anyway, only they would have been there that much sooner and that much more certainly.
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