Buh-Bye "War on Terror"

By GottaLaff

I've always hated the phrase "war on terror", mainly because declaring war on a tactic is so inanely typical of Bush that I respond to it the way I respond to fingernails on a blackboard... or Sarah Palin's voice. Plus, it's meaningless as well as provocative-- a euphemism for anti-Islam.

And no matter what the label, terrorism (that's the correct word, Georgie) will never go away, so of course, Bush's "war" would be a perpetual one:

The "War on Terror" is losing the war of words.

The catchphrase burned into the American lexicon hours after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, is fading away, slowly if not deliberately being replaced by a new administration bent on repairing the U.S. image among Muslim nations.

Since taking office less than two weeks ago, President Barack Obama has talked broadly of the "enduring struggle against terrorism and extremism." Another time it was an "ongoing struggle."

He has pledged to "go after" extremists and "win this fight." There even was an oblique reference to a "twilight struggle" as the U.S. relentlessly pursues those who threaten the country. [...]

Ultimately and perhaps inadvertently, however, the phrase "became associated in the minds of many people outside the Unites States and particularly in places where the countries are largely Islamic and Arab, as being anti-Islam and anti-Arab," said Anthony Cordesman, a national security analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.

Now, he said, there is a sense that the U.S. should be talking more about specific extremist groups — ones that are recognized as militants in the Arab world and that are viewed as threats not just to America or the West, but also within the countries they operate.

The thinking has evolved, he said, to focus on avoiding the kind of rhetoric "which could imply that this was a struggle against a religion or a culture."

Wayne Fields, professor of English and American culture studies at Washington University in St. Louis, and an expert on presidential rhetoric:=

"One of the contrasts between the two administrations is the care with which Obama uses language. He thinks about the subtle implications" [...]

"Obama, he said, understands that language and conversation must be worked at and that it's "not just a series of sound bites."

White House officials say there has been no deliberate ban on the war-on-terror phrase. And it hasn't completely disappeared. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs has used the wording in briefings, and it's still in vogue among some in the Pentagon and State Department.

Recently, words like "subtle" and "nuance" were not words Americans associated with strong leadership. Looks like we have one more example of real change, courtesy of President Obama.