He Really Thinks a Lot of Himself, Doesn't He?

The idea advanced by President Obama's defenders that we aren't acknowledging that we are at war with ISIL because we shouldn't legitimize ISIL as a combatant and that doing so would raise the stature of ISIL is just nonsense.

Keep in mind that ISIL believes they are on a mission from God.

In what alternate world does ISIL value President Obama's description of them more than Allah's approval?

UPDATE: Hah! Suckers!

Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, used the language at least three times during his daily briefing with reporters. “The U.S. is at war with ISIL in the same way the U.S. is at war with al Qaeda,” he said, using an alternate acronym for the group.

Minutes earlier, a Pentagon spokesman, Rear Adm. John Kirby, used similar terminology. “This is not the Iraq war of 2002,” he told reporters. “But, make no mistake, we know we are at war with ISIL, in the same way we are at war and continue to be at war with al Qaeda and its affiliates.”

I welcome the administration's acceptance of the "war" issue.

And I relish that in doing so the administration just threw under the bus all those loyal "reality-based" minions stubbornly defending the refusal to call our actions a "war" to avoid raising the stature of our enemy.

As a point of order, I'd like to note that there was no Iraq War of 2002 unless you count the ongoing post Persian Gulf War no-fly zone enforcement over Iraq. We invaded Iraq in 2003.