Andy McCarthy’s new book Willful Blindness and his latest essay “The Jihad in Plain Sight” are both must-reading for anyone who concerned that, even now, we have not come to terms with the need for war against Islamic terrorists. His essay makes the horrifying point that our State Department has seen fit to banish the word “jihad” from our official vocabulary.

So if you bemoan the Democratic near-nominee’s unwillingness to face up to harsh international realities and draw clear lines, you won’t be happy to hear that the problem is much more widespread. Yes, Rudy Giuliani mocked the Democrats for failing to use the words “Islamic terrorism” in their debates. But left to its own devices the State Department is going down the same road. (John McCain apparently has no similar issue with vocabulary.)

If you can’t recognize your enemies and define the nature of the threat, you’re not going to defeat them. You will instead spend time annoying the general population, giving them a sense that our efforts are foolhardy.

So if the Presidential candidates want to have a nice high-minded debate, they might start with a simple question: what do you call the enemy? That may tell us quite a bit about each candidate’s willingness and ability to grapple with unpleasant realities.