Within a few hours on September 17, a pressure cooker bomb exploded in the Chelsea neighborhood in New York injuring 31 people, a man stabbed 10 people in a Minnesota mall, and bombs were found near the site of a Marine Corps charity race in New Jersey. The following Monday morning, White House press secretary Josh Earnest appeared on CNN and explained, “We are in a fight with ISIS—a narrative fight.”

There was much guffawing at the suggestion that, to paraphrase The Untouchables, the Obama administration is bringing a narrative to a gun fight, much less the global war on terror. However, the old Washington saw that a gaffe is when you accidentally tell the truth certainly applies here. Americans who don’t follow politics obsessively would likely be stunned to learn that this is an official White House talking point. At least five times in the last year, Earnest has publicly fretted that ISIS is advancing its “narrative.”