Ben Sasse: “earlier today it was reported that the President's Deputy National Security Adviser was asked about my call that the…”

“earlier today it was reported that the President's Deputy National Security Adviser was asked about my call that the President and the administration speak clearly about the nature of the enemy we face--about my call that we be honest with the American people and with ourselves about the fact that we are at war with militant Islam, we are at war with jihadi Islam, and we are at war with violent Islam. In response, the White House was quoted in the World-Herald this morning as saying this: Our strong belief is to not treat these ISIL terrorists as leaders of some religious movement. Even if you have a derogatory adjective attached to it--radical Islam or Islamic extremism--essentially you are saying they are the leaders of a religious movement. And that is what they want. They want to be seen not as terrorists and killers and thugs, as the president said, but as leaders who speak on behalf of religion. And that is why we have not identified them as the enemy in this effort. This is lunacy. First, while the White House is insisting that no one use the word ``Islamic'' or note any connection between the war that we are facing and some subset of Islam--even as the White House insists that no one use the word, their own preferred adjective, ``ISIL'' or ``ISIS,'' begins with an ``I.'' Every fourth grader in America can deduce without any assistance from Vanna White what the rest of the word that begins with an ``I'' is.…”