"The war that was joined on September 11, 2001 is defined by three simple but brutal facts. Our enemy is able to penetrate our borders and strike us in our homes; he can strike us with weapons of mass destruction; and he has made clear that his intention is not to change our policies, but to obliterate us and destroy our civilization itself. Because of these facts, the imperatives of defending ourselves as quickly and effectively as possible are more important in this war than in any we have ever fought.
"In all wars the first essential is to know your enemy. Everything you can do to thwart his objectives or to protect your life and the lives of your countrymen depends on this knowledge.
"Who, then, is the enemy that threatens our destruction? Officially he has been definedin terms of “terror” and “evil,” which are generic terms that describe the means by which he has chosen to fight the war, rather than why he is fighting or how we have become his target. They do not tell us who he is. The failure to name our enemy precisely is a source of weakness in erecting our defenses. In attempting to establish security perimeters at our borders, and in our airports and harbors, we have denied ourselves the ability to target those who have targeted us. The policy that refuses to identify the enemy by name is a policy that asks us to fight in the dark. Yet every terrorist who slips through our security net is capable of killing tens of thousands of innocent civilians.
"But we know who our enemy is, no matter that he or anyone else chooses to deny it. We have seen his face, even if we are still reluctant to give him a name. We are at war with radical Islam and with those who offer radical Islam aid and comfort, and this means with the international radical left. Both see America as the “Great Satan,” embodying the twin evils of capitalist oppression and Western domination. The attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon were attacks on the twin symbols of American wealth and power, as defined both by the Islamists and the left."
- “Know Your Enemy” from Left Illusions
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