Mario, that’s accurate, but it is not useful to employ so many terms. It doesn’t help people understand who the enemy is or what it is we are fighting.

Imagine a speech in which the President vows to “win the war against the Wahhabis, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Janjaweed, the Taliban and the Shia mullahs of Iran.”

This is one of the reasons the war was, initially named with reference to a tactic rather to an ideology: “The War on Terrorism.” But the shortcomings of that phrase have become all too apparent.

Also, we need a term that will help people recognize now that this enemy is a serious menace. You’re right that after the war, the loser’s brand is always left tarnished. But at this point, I’m not so confident about who will lose.