Christopher Hitchens...

...is a long time Leftie who has famously broken with the Left over the War on Islamism. In his Slate column on the decline of the term "Arab street" he makes some other points as well.

The London-based newspaper Al Quds al-Arabi, which has for some time been a surrogate voice for "insurgent" talk in the Arab diaspora, polled its readers after the Iraqi elections and had the grace to print the result. About 90 percent had been favorably impressed by the sight of Iraqi and Kurdish voters waiting their turn to have a say in their own future....

(P)ropagandists...have lately been flourishing the term "Islamophobia." This word, or slogan, has been gaining ground among soft defenders of Islamism in Europe. It is used to put a stop to discussion about the political aims of Islamists in non-Islamic societies, and it has most recently generated great nervousness in Britain—sufficient nervousness to decide the Blair government to introduce legislation to make criticism of Islam into a prohibited hate crime.

Here again, the most persuasive evidence is the evidence that looks us in the face. In Iraq, Muslim militants place bombs in the mosques of those Muslims they regard as heretics. In Afghanistan and Pakistan, too, the Salafi and Wahhabi extremists commit murder against Muslims they deem unclean or unorthodox. And in the West, there are non-Muslims who excuse such atrocities as "resistance." These are often the same as those who hailed what they thought of as the "street." I don't think they should be indicted for hate crimes, but they should be made to understand that what they say is hateful and criminal, as well as sectarian. The battle for clarity of language is a part of this larger contest, and it is time for the opponents of terror and bigotry to become very much less apologetic and defensive on this score.

The term "Islamophobe" may be taking on the same usefulness which "Racist!" has long enjoyed as a debate stopper. It relieves the user of having to address the recipient's points.

Just so, I think the term War on Terror is a misnomer. We are in a war against people, not a technique. The people we fight are Islamic fascists, those who work to impose by force their version of Islam upon all the rest of the world, including all of the many Muslims who do not share the Islamists' beliefs. They are the ones who call for the extermination of all who are not Muslims of the correct sort, and the current war to bring some reasonable democratic government to secular Iraq is aimed ultimately at the despotic governments, secular and Islamist, which provoke and promote the fascists.

Click here: The Arab Street - A vanquished cliché. By Christopher Hitchens

Thanks to James Taranto: Click here: OpinionJournal - Best of the Web Today