Quote Originally Posted by Stevely View Post
In seven years I have not seen any evidence, whether in public statements or actual policy, that the government considers Islam evil and that such an attitude drives our strategy (however poor it is in other respects). They may be bad at "outreach" but the government in its clumsy way has been trying to show that the extremists are trying to hijack Islam and that we side with those moderates who want to live with the rest of the world in peace. For all the Bush Administration's sins, holding Islam at large as an enemy hasn't been one of them.
I agree that the U.S. government has not adopted that as a formal position (thank goodness), however the belief that Islam is evil is held by some individuals working for the government, and those individuals, if placed high enough, can interfere with the process of finding workable solutions to this long-standing problem. Coughlin was one of those individuals. Another is LTC Joseph C. Meyers, Army advisor to the Commandant of the Air Command and Staff College, formerly with the DIA, and holder of the Medal of Achievement, awarded to him by the DNI.