By Judi McLeod ——Bio and Archives--September 11, 2014
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“We will hunt down terrorists who threaten our country, wherever they are,” Mr. Obama declared in a 14-minute address. “That means I will not hesitate to take action against ISIL in Syria, as well as Iraq,” he added, using an alternative name for ISIS. “This is a core principle of my presidency: If you threaten America, you will find no safe haven.”For the many who deliberately missed Obama’s address last night, there will be oodles of stories of what he posited under a picture of him dressed in Super Man garb.
“How can world leaders agree on how to fight a band of bloodthirsty extremists if we don’t know what to call them?” “Tonight in his much-anticipated speech, President Obama is once again going to refer to this frightening organization with the name “ISIL” – and once again, it’s going to sound very strange - because the rest of the world is calling it something else. It seems as though almost from the moment we all first became aware of the group that wants an Islamic state to engulf the Middle East, we’ve been puzzling out what its name should be.”Obama is the most cunning of enemies hiding with double talk behind enemy lines. Pictorially, he should not be shown as Super Man but in the same garb as the enemy to whom he lends an undeserved legitimacy defining them by the wrong name. For the distinction between the two names of ISIS and ISIL, Sommers does an excellent job:
When you cut through all the rhetoric, propaganda and the pictures of Obama dressed like Super Man, all Obama is really doing is deploying 475 more “military advisers” to Iraq--with no boots on the ground. “We will hunt down terrorists who threaten our country, wherever they are,” sounds tough--but only if you have the courage to put action behind those words. The image of Obama as ‘Guardian of the Galaxy’ ripping off his shirt to show Super Man garb must be somebody’s idea of a sick joke. Barack Obama is the world’s Number One ‘Hustler of ISIL’. That’s the real image he himself made for the world on the eve of the 13th Commemoration of the always-will-be-remembered 9/11.I. Al-Dawla Al-Islamiya fi al-Iraq wa al-Sham
STANDS FOR: “The Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria” in Arabic. The full name of the group in Arabic. This wasn’t always its name. Though versions of the group existed earlier, it was founded under this name in 2004, the Arabic name ended with the word ‘Iraq’. The new name was born in 2012, after the group entered into the fray in Syria. Non-Arabic speakers rarely refer to the group by its full name – as it is clearly is too much of a mouthful, even for those familiar with Arabic. Clearly the name had to be shortened, but the way in which it is abbreviated both reflects and shapes the way it is being approached.II. ISIS
STANDS FOR: An abbreviated version of the Arabic name translated as “The Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria.” Currently the most commonly used term for the group in the English-speaking world and media, unless you are President Obama or a U.S. government official. It’s rather strange that somewhere along the line, it was determined that the group’s name should be both Anglicized and abbreviated. After all, nobody refers to TPOG for “The Party of God” - they call the Lebanese organization by its Arabic name, “Hezbollah.” And no one ever refers to Hamas as “IRM,” standing for the “Islamic Resistance Movement.” But ISIS is the name that has stuck, despite the terrible unfairness to the legacy of an ancient Egyptian goddess, and much to the dismay of numerous spas, nail salons, and even a lingerie line named after her. And women named Isis are clearly not amused.III. ISIL
STANDS FOR: An abbreviated version of the Arabic name translated as “The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant." An alternative translation and abbreviation to ISIS, the official name of the organization used by the U.S. government. The U.S. government clearly officially rejects using the term “ISIS.” In all of their public pronouncements, President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry have use the term “ISIL” though numerous members of Congress, and the media prefer “ISIS.” ‘Levant’ is a creaky and colonial term for the Eastern Mediterranean, which the Oxford Encyclopedia tells us includes “Cyprus, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, and part of southern Turkey.”
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