The one constant underlying the various zigzags in attitudes among the US ruling class is that Islamists were pegged as allies or enemies based on US interests and political hegemony. The debate between confrontationists and accommodationists within the foreign policy establishment does not question the right of the United States to assert its power around the world. Thus, this debate is more aptly characterized as a tactical disagreement between conservative (or, more aptly, neoconservative) and liberal imperialists on how best to realize the aims of empire-building.

DEFINE: Defines the confrontationist/accommodationist split as tactical rather than fundamental, reframing the debate as between conservative and liberal imperialists.

Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politi…, loc. 278