This Is The Enemy

The recent "controversy" over General William Boykin's comments about the War on Terror being a religious war was evidence of liberals' bent toward waging a more "sensitive" war. This whole thing was pushed by the PC thought police/ACLU types who want to remove all acknowledgement of religion (as though it doesn't exist) from the public square. I was disappointed that the Pentagon did not defend him more vigorously. He was eventually reprimanded (sort of), but not too much was made of it.

Northwestern University Library hosts an online collection of U.S. Government World War II posters. Looking through the collection, one of them struck me. It struck me first because of the pointed image it depicts and second, that it was put out by the government. In 1943, the Office of War Information released this poster. It depicts a Nazi-uniformed arm holding a knife and driving it through the Holy Bible with the caption, "THIS IS THE ENEMY". There is no subtlety in the poster's message. Apparently, some felt that World War II had characteristics of a religious war. I doubt many people were very worried about offending Nazis or their sympathizers at the time. So, why when Islamic extremists themselves have declared war on not only our country, but on Christians and Jews as well, are people outraged that a member of our military, who is tasked with knowing and understanding the enemy and the threat, states that he thinks we are engaged in a religious war? These liberals cry foul when one of these extremists doesn't get an extra pillow when he arrives at Gitmo, but they demand resignations from our generals who violate the code of political correctness.

Below is the original poster. Next to it is one I altered, with the black flag of al-Qaeda on the sleeve instead.