The head of the Department of Homeland Security was at a Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill when, after enduring a lengthy rant about Muslims from Sen. Ted Cruz, he finally had enough. As Cruz checked the boxes off on his Islamophobia checklist, he wound up asking the same stupid question repeatedly to DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson: Why is the White House refusing to use the term  radical Islam? As national security issues go, this one is somewhere around the bottom of the priority list. As has been repeatedly pointed out by military and foreign policy experts, the term  radical Islam  doesn t do a single thing to stop terrorism, while at the same time playing directly into the hands of terrorist groups like ISIS. As a rule, presidents don t like to engage in that terminology precisely because it works to undermine the fight against global terrorism. Ted Cruz might even dimly recall how the last Republican president, George W. Bush, also didn t like to lump all Muslims into the category of  terrorists.  Even he understood that it was self-defeating. Americans understand we fight not a religion,  [George Bush] said.  Ours is not a campaign against the Muslim faith. Ours is a campaign against evil. Although [Bush and Obama] have taken very different approaches to combating terrorism, it s strikingly hard to tell the difference between their statements on the divide between the majority of those who practice Islam and those who invoke the faith to carry out violence. There are thousands of Muslims who proudly call themselves Americans, and they know what I know   that the Muslim faith is based upon peace and love and compassion,  Bush once said.Americans might understand that, but Ted Cruz apparently didn t.At the hearing, Cruz demanded to know if President Obama or anyone else in the White House had intentionally removed  references to radical Islamic terrorism.  After several times rebuking Cruz, Johnson finally snapped. Senator, I find this whole debate to be very interesting, but I have to tell you, when I was at the Department of Defense giving the legal sign off on a lot of drone strikes I didn t particularly care if the baseball card said  Islamic extremist  or  violent extremist . I think this is very interesting, but it makes no difference to me in terms of who we need to go after. And who is determined to attack our homeland. As Secretary Johnson reminded Cruz, the war against groups like ISIS won t be won by semantics. The airstrikes are real. The fighting on the ground (often times most heavily supported by Muslim nations) is real. The words a blustering Ted Cruz wants to use aren t. But Johnson wasn t down twisting the knife. The other point I d like to make is that I have to think in practical terms in Homeland Security. I think this is all very interesting, makes for good political debate, but in practical terms, if we in our efforts here in the homeland start giving the Islamic State the credence that they want   to be referred to as part of Islam or some form of Islam   we will get nowhere in our efforts to build bridges with Muslim communities. In other words: Stop grandstanding, Ted. Take a seat and shut up.Watch Sec. Johnson make mincemeat of Cruz below:Featured image via YouTube