“If Fox didn’t talk about this, they’d have nothing else to talk about!” Attorney General Eric Holder said at a journalism forum in Washington on Tuesday.
“Radical Islam, Islamic extremism, I’m not sure a lot is gained by saying that,” Holder continued. “It doesn’t have any impact on our military posture, doesn’t have any impact on what we call it, on the policies that we put in place.”
“What we have to do is defined not by the terms that we use but by the facts on the ground,” said Holder. “So I don’t worry an awful lot about what the appropriate terminology ought to be.”
Appearing irritated, he said: “We spend more time – more time -- talking about what you call it than what do you do about it. You know? I mean really!
Holder: “I think people need to actually think about that. Really? We’re having this conversation about words, as opposed to what our actions ought to be?”
He concluded: “The terminology, it seems to me, has little or no impact on what we ultimately have to do.”
His contention that words have no impact on how the U.S. responds to threats in the Middle East sounds particularly bizarre when one remembers that Holder is trained in a field that demands precise terminology – the law.