The enemy: "militant, violent, terrorist extremists"

That's what president-elect Obama said on Meet the Press, Dec. 7 (remember Pearl Harbor). Pity he didn't mention "Islamists" or "Jihadists"--but he did say Osama bin Laden must be caught.

From a transcript:

...we need a strategic partnership with all the parties in the region--Pakistan and India and the Afghan Government--to stamp out the kind of militant, violent, terrorist extremists that have set up base camps and that are operating in ways that threaten the security of everybody in the international community...

...we’ve got to get bin Laden, and we’ve got to get Al Qaida...

Not exactly Stephen Harper words.

Here's an interesting column by Robert D. Kaplan on Islam and India, Pakistan and Afstan (though I would not link that area historically to the "Middle East"--Muslim invasions of India over the last millenium have not been related to the Arab Caliphate or the Ottoman Empire):

Trouble in the Other Middle East