Senior officials openly framed the Iraq War as a fight of terror against terror.

Evidence

The only way we can win is to go unconventional,” explained an American advisor to the civilian authority in Baghdad. “We’re going to have to play their game. Guerrilla versus guerrilla. Terrorism versus terrorism. We’ve got to scare the Iraqis into submission.” Another official concurred: “It’s not the way we usually play ball, but if you see a couple of your guys get blown away it changes things. We did the American things—and we’ve been the nice guy. Now we’re going to be the bad guy, and being the bad guy works.” Not everyone agreed. As one Pentagon advisor put it, “I’m as tough as anybody, but we’re also a democratic society, and we don’t fight terror with terror.” Rumsfeld, however, had been given the power to effectively establish “a global free-fire zone.” — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 515

Categorization

• XREF: The explicit ‘we’re going to be the bad guy’ framing parallels the militant masculinity thesis throughout the book — a nationalism-coded toughness the reader can track as continuity into Trump.