WARSAW — A distorted view of the present is the worst way to prepare for the challenges of the future. To describe the struggle against international terrorism as "World War IV," as the leading American neoconservative Norman Podhoretz does in his new book, is wrongheaded in any number of ways.
First of all, when and where was World War III? The Cold War, precisely because it never became "hot," was never the equivalent of World War I or II. Of course, the "World War" reference may be intended to create an "us" versus "them" logic, but this does not correspond to the nature of the challenge posed by radical Islam, given the complexity and the many divisions that exist within the Muslim world.
Indeed, by militarizing our thinking, it renders us incapable of finding the right answers, which must be as much political as security-oriented.