Steven Vincent continues....

....his discussion of Iraq in his Terms of Engagement series, and provides this wicked quote from Nibras Kazimi.

Someone who grasps this point--and is rapidly becoming one of my favorite commentators on Iraq--is ex-pat Nibras Kazimi, who regularly appears in the must-read New York Sun.  Here's his take on language and the fight against Islamofascism.

The greatest victory so far in the war on terror occurred last week. The evil-doers have ceded the press and broadcast industry battleground and are now scrambling for legitimacy in fending off democracy. Their rhetoric is no longer riddled with loaded catch-phrases like "Zionism" and "colonial occupation" or even the "new crusades." No, today's talking points for the jihadists go something like this: Democracy is a Greek word that means power through the people and not God, which is a heresy that must be eradicated.

Continuing on, Kazimi asserts that the terrorists "are quickly losing the battle of ideas and visions for the future of the Arab and Islamic world."  Taking up the Sunni threat to "boycott" (subvert is a better word) the elections, he utilizes one of my favorite metaphors for the reconstruction of Iraq.

In 1864, America had an election during its Civil War, and Abraham Lincoln won a second term through a landslide while most of the secessionist South did not participate. Is anyone today going to make the argument that these results were illegitimate? [Today] elementary school children across America are learning that there was no moral equivalency between slave owners and the unionists. In 20 years time, Iraqi children will also be taught that, during the height of an undeclared civil war that is currently ravishing the country, there was no moral equivalency between the democrats and the beheaders.

Oomph! There it is!