A quiet war

It's tempting and very American to get loud when we confront hostile forces. But in the case of radical Islam, this is exactly what the enemy wants: a loud war, a "clash of civilizations." Robert Kaplan, in The Atlantic, explains-- quietly, methodically-- why the Don Corleone approach is a lot smarter than the John Wayne approach in fighting an enemy who craves global attention.

Numerous frustrated voices declare that we shouldn’t be shy about declaring that this attack was an incident of Islamic terrorism. That it may well turn out to be, but we would lose far more than we would gain by waving the bloody shirt. The ultimate strategic goal of al-Qaeda is to turn our struggle with it into a “clash of civilizations.” If potential Muslim recruits to the U.S. military quietly decide not to enlist for fear of retribution or prejudice inside the barracks, that would be a victory for al-Qaeda. The consequences for terrorists must be tough, but our rhetoric must remain ecumenical. We should let the investigation take its course, mete out punishment, and quickly move on.
Consider the "Clash of Civilizations” itself, an idea propounded by the late Harvard professor Samuel P. Huntington in 1993 in “Foreign Affairs,” and three years later turned into a book. I defended Huntington’s idea in a profile I did of him in the Atlantic (December 2001), written before 9/11. I argued that his idea was right if a bit simplistic, but it was no less valid a bumper sticker for the world we were entering than that of the “Cold War,” which was also simplistic and didn’t encompass many of the trends of the 1945-89 world, particularly in developing countries. At the same time, I would have been horrified if any official, speaking on behalf of the U.S. government, had subscribed publicly to Huntington’s theory. Huntington could expound it because he was a political scientist, dedicated not to improving the world but to writing honestly about what he thought was going on in it. I could subscribe to it as a writer. But because the only way to win a clash of civilizations is to deny that you are fighting one in the first place, government and military officials must always take the high road in their public statements. That’s why, while we improve our security procedures behind the scenes, we should deal with the massacre at Fort Hood in as low key a manner as possible. More Maj. Hasans may lurk in the barracks and public squares. The way to find them out is not in a shrill witch hunt, but quietly, methodically, and legally, even as we open up our military to a wider spectrum of recruits.