'Know Thine Enemy,' Romney Says of 'Jihadists'

April 30, 2006 — -- Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass., has sought to confront the religious element of terrorism.

"They are terrorists, yes, but more directly they are Jihadists," the White House hopeful told ABC News. "That has broad implications."

Romney's determination to avoid referring to America's enemies solely by the tactics that they use is earning praise from some foreign policy specialists.

"I think it could change the entire center of the conversation," said Mary Habeck, a professor of strategic studies at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

By identifying America's enemies as Jihadists, Habeck thinks the United States would be better positioned to wage an ideological campaign to "portray these people as the extremists that they really are" and to "drive a wedge between them and the vast majority of the Islamic world."

In her new book, "Knowing the Enemy: Jihadist Ideology and the War on Terror," Habeck argues that Jihadists are not merely angry about U.S. policies. In Habeck's view, Jihadists are at war with the United States because they view America as the biggest obstacle to the global rule of an Islamic superstate.

She told ABC News that if you refer to them as terrorists, "you have no idea what holds them together as a group or what gets them to join up as a group."

Romney's determination to go beyond the "terrorist" label has also met with approval by a Democratic member of the 9/11 Commission.

"The governor is on the right track," former Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., told ABC News. "I continue to believe very strongly that a war against a military tactic is not likely to be very satisfying in the end."

Kerrey is concerned, however, that the root word jihad has multiple implications.

"I would not use the word jihad because there is a peaceful jihad," said Kerrey.

The former Navy SEAL, who was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his service in Vietnam, would prefer to see the United States declare war on al Qaeda.