So where are we today in what used to be called the War on Terror and is now termed the War against Al Qaeda?

The young man arrested in Detroit on Christmas Day nearly succeeded. We need to only imagine some 300 people, many of them mothers with young children, falling to their deaths in a fiery mass over the city of Detroit in order to surmise the national trauma that would have followed.    

I think it is crucial that we in academia, especially in the social sciences, recognize that we have a historically new phenomenon here, something that has been unfolding over this entire past decade. Why should this surprise us? The world saw new kinds of warfare erupt during the 20th century. Why should we not expect to see new forms arise in the 21st?

Neither liberals nor conservatives sufficiently understand the newness involved, or the importance of understanding it. The political right tends to think of this war in terms of World War II, which it is not. Terms like Axis of Evil and Islamic-Fascism suggest that conservatives are living in the past, probably a danger inherent in conservative thought.

Yes, there are governments out there that provide support for organizations dedicated to killing us, and yes there are violent anti-democratic sentiments awash in the world. That being said, the term Islamic Fascism is much like the term horseless carriage. Both reduce the new to the old.

Radically violent extremism within Islamic communities is similar to German Fascism to about that same extent that my Nissan Altima is similar to a 19th century buggy. Treating the current enemy as if it were a past one will only lead us further into the morass.

But the political left’s habitual vice is to engage in wishful thinking. We should treasure our civil liberties. America without them is not America. But just as this is not a Rambo movie, neither is it as an episode Law and Order.

True, this is not an entirely military problem. We should recognize the social, economic and ethical issues involved, but to ignore the military dimension will have tragic consequences, and will prevent us from accomplishing much in the other areas.

We need new thinking, not new talking points. There is very little of the former in the latter anyway. Ludwig Wittgenstein, the oracular Austrian philosopher, once observed that those things that are unique in a phenomenon should interest us every bit as much as those things that make it appear common. Social scientists and policy makers need to look at what is unique in this war. Spirited debate and research, yes; hack partisanship, no.

We may not be able to beat our swords into plow shears for now, but we can at least stop grinding our axes. The noise is not only irksome. It is dangerously distracting.     

Roger White is an associate professor of political science. He can be reached at [email protected]

On The Record is a weekly column open to any Loyola faculty or staff. Those who are interested can e-mail [email protected]