s out that a major difference between Western and Islamic thought concerning war is that "Muslims believe that expansion through war in not aggression but a fulfillment of the Qur'anic command to spread Islam as a way of peace" (p. 131). Elshtain correctly points out that against a fanatic foe such as Al-Qaeda, committed to jihad and to the slaughter of innocent people, attempts to use reason to negotiate a settlement would be pointless. She is very critical of many Western intellectuals who "resist calling things by their right names and who systematically misdescribe moral and political reality in the interest of furthering an ideology" (p. 16). She decries what she calls the "overheated distortions" and excuses for inaction put forward by "Western self-loathing" intellectuals (pp. 91 & 146).
However, Elshtain goes further and defends the war against terror as a struggle against evil. She says "we must and will fight-not in order to conquer any countries or to destroy peoples or religions, but to defend who
...