[Tares]

Comments and criticisms welcome.

[Tares]

Kay Syrah: Here is my attempt at naming the real enemy.

[ninonitti]

It's the "religion" stupid.

[Tares]

Your posting of this article led to my writing of the above.

[Mr. Mojo]

"bin Ladenism" = Islam .....despite the spinmeisters' best attempts at separating the two.

[Ohioan]

I stated back in the fall of 2001, what appeared to be the obvious way to fight Terrorism successfully:

War 2001!--The Shortest, Surest Path To Victory. I think my approach avoids the problems that you cite, while rallying the forces of tradition and legality in almost every land to our side.

William Flax

[expat_panama]

Well written and thought provoking.  I was trying to get the magazine link that the essay came from when I realized that it was your blog.  My first thought is 'what's wrong with the word 'terrorism' but that word has gone the way of so many words (oh yeah, well George Washington was a terrorist too nyah nyah nyah).  We really need a word that means what terrorism meant way back in the last century, namely

the systematic use of violence (as bombing) committed by groups in order to intimidate a population or government into granting their demands 

the systematic use of violence (as bombing) committed by groups in order to intimidate a population or government into granting their demands

The only thing that Webster left out was that 'groups' should have be qualified as secretive and non-governmental.  Of course, when the terrorist is killing Americans, they call him an 'insurgent'

a person who revolts against civil authority or an established government; especially : a rebel not recognized as a belligerent

--a definition that at one time would have included Washington.  Bottom line, if the word terrorism is corrupted, Bin Ladenism will have to do.  We may eventually have to drop the capitals for common use, to 'binladenism', kind of like what happened what happened to Tom Crapper's last name.