Shift away from "terrorism" in national security strategy documents (Reagan, health care)

[HappyTexan]

A shift ...remove "Islamic radicalism" from our national security strategy and instead focus on science, business and education.

Peace not war. While I applaud the peace efforts, I hope we keep the defenses ready in the background. I just don't see terrorists, who hate America, yielding to peace.

Not all terrorism: Obama tries to change subject - Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100407/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_terrorism_rhetoric - broken link)

[Wapasha]

Originally Posted by HappyTexan

A shift ...remove "Islamic radicalism" from our national security strategy and instead focus on science, business and education.

Peace not war. While I applaud the peace efforts, I hope we keep the defenses ready in the background. I just don't see terrorists, who hate America, yielding to peace.

Not all terrorism: Obama tries to change subject - Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100407/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_terrorism_rhetoric - broken link)

Now, only if 0bama was as understanding and open minded when it came to the American people who voice opposition to his political agenda.

[txgolfer130]

Just a few things you seem to have forgotten to mention (probably on purpose):

The officials described the changes on condition of anonymity because the document is still being written and is unlikely to be released for weeks
...
The revisions are part of a larger effort about which the White House talks openly, one that seeks to change not just how the U.S. talks to Muslim nations, but also what it talks to them about, from health care and science to business startups and education.
...
That shift away from terrorism has been building for a year, since Obama went to Cairo and promised a "new beginning" in the relationship between the U.S. and the Muslim world. The White House believes the previous administration based that relationship entirely on fighting terrorism and winning the war of ideas.
"You take a country where the overwhelming majority are not going to become terrorists, and you go in and say, 'We're building you a hospital so you don't become terrorists.' That doesn't make much sense," National Security Council staffer Pradeep Ramamurthy said.
...
"Do you want to think about the U.S. as the nation that fights terrorism or the nation you want to do business with?" Ramamurthy said.
To deliver that message, Obama's speechwriters have taken inspiration from an unlikely source: former President Ronald Reagan. Visiting communist China in 1984, Reagan spoke at Fudan University in Shanghai about education, space exploration and scientific research. He discussed freedom and liberty. He never mentioned communism or democracy.
"They didn't look up to the U.S. because we hated communism," said Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes, Obama's foreign policy speechwriter.
Like Reagan in China, Obama in Cairo made only passing references to terrorism. Instead he focused on cooperation. He announced the U.S. would team up to fight polio with the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, a multinational body based in Saudi Arabia. The U.S. and OIC had worked together before, but never with that focus.
...
Obama did not invent Muslim outreach. President George W. Bush gave the White House its first Quran, hosted its first Iftar dinner to celebrate Ramadan and loudly stated support for Muslim democracies like Turkey.
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Karen Hughes, a Bush confidante who served as his top diplomat to the Muslim world in his second term, urged the White House to stop.
"I did recommend that, in my judgment, it's unfortunate because of the way it's heard. We ought to avoid the language of religion," Hughes said. "Whenever they hear 'Islamic extremism, Islamic jihad, Islamic fundamentalism,' they perceive it as a sort of an attack on their faith. That's the world view Osama bin Laden wants them to have."
...

Amazing what a little perspective does, ain't it?!!!

[Tommy Storm]

Remember folks, it is UNAmerican to be American anymore.