Or do they? Somehow, the big-picture perspective on global jihad escapes the blinkered gaze of many people, particularly critics and opponents of the war in Iraq. And they miss the point of the war, which is a big point. Barham Saleh, prime minister of the Kurdish-controlled region of northern Iraq, nicely encapsulated it this way for the Times: "Iraq is the nexus where many issues are coming together -- Islam versus democracy, the West versus the axis of evil, Arab nationalism versus some different types of political culture. If the Americans succeed here, this will be a monumental blow to everything the terrorists stand for."
Seems to me you have to try awfully hard not to see at least the outlines of the big pictures Kreikar and Saleh have sketched out. However, such evasive action perfectly embodies the politically correct mindset that organizes history, facts, populations, endeavors and achievements according to a cramping calculus of sex, race and other identity markers. In order for the Bush-haters, the history-challenged and, of course, the political correct, to deny the Islamic nature of the terrorism we are at war with, they must first avert their eyes.
Why do they do it? Maybe it's because the PC-think driving the racial bean-counters stems from an ideology out to remake the West. In a radically different way, of course, so is militant Islam. This isn't common cause, exactly, but maybe it helps explain the tendency to look the other way.