We have faced down and defeated much greater adversaries. ISIL is not Nazi Germany. It is not the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War. This is not World War III or the much-hyped clash of civilizations.Rice is correct, the threat of ISIL alone does not reach "clash of civilizations" proportions. What does reach that oft-touted level is the clash of the West with militant political Islam, which includes, but is not limited to, ISIL, Al Qaeda, Boko Haram, Jemaah Islamiyah, Hezbollah, the Salafists, Hamas, Abu Sayyaf, and the Moro National Liberation Front.
Taken as a collectivity of violent Islamic opponents of the West, our opposition to these is a clash of civilizations, if you can call them "civilized," which is admittedly a stretch.
