More often than not, Americans and the World look to American Presidents for their words. Whether a president’s words bring comfort, understanding, clarity, resolve or commitment, it is all about the message and delivery of them.

The Obama Administration started out on the wrong foot with regard to the “war of terrorism”.
 
According to then President-elect Obama and his nominee for Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, there was no “war on terrorism”. In fact they refused to even use the word terrorism in their public speak before and after taking office.
 
The consequence of this new “policy” by a new American administration of not acknowledging a continuing and dangerous threat to our country and our allies emboldened those who seek to do us harm and troubled our friends.
 
Secretary Designee Napolitano within days of Obama taking the oath of office appeared before Senate confirmation hearings at which in her prepared remarks she never once uttered the words “war on terrorism” or “terrorism”. Instead she called clear acts of organized terrorism, “man caused disasters”.

The words the President is using today, after the first domestic terror attack on his watch, are not the same words he used in the campaign or his first many months in office. The words he uses today are words of a president, any president who is confronted with an enemy that is undeniable and determined.

Bradley A. Blakeman, Georgetown Professor 2009 Public Policy and Politics, Deputy Assistant to President George W. Bush, 2001-2004.