by Paul Richter
The phrase "war on terror," for seven years a signature expression of the Bush administration, has been shelved, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton acknowledged Monday.
Clinton said there had been no directive from her office or within the Obama administration, but she said officials had stopped using the term.
"The administration has stopped using the phrase, and that speaks for itself, obviously," Clinton told reporters aboard her plane on the way to a meeting in the Netherlands.
Former President Bush adopted the phrase "war on terror" to define U.S. policy after the Sept. 11 attacks. Soon Pentagon officials turned the term "global war on terror" into an acronym, GWOT.
However, among Bush's opponents and international critics, the phrase came to symbolize his administration's unpopular foreign policy and its detention practices.
The Obama administration has said that it has not officially banned the phrase.
"It's just not being used," Clinton said.
Comments
Now called "A mild disgareement with our misunderstood Islamic friends."
Posted by: Terry | March 31, 2009 8:34 AM
Did Obama not get the meno? Last Friday, during his new Afghan strategy announcement, I think I heard the words; terror, terrorists, war, extremists. Now it is Tuesday and we have a what? Disagreement over personal approaches to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, compounded by religious intolerance, in the human lifestyle abetted by the conflicting goals of communities of people resulting in aberrant behavior not compatible with peaceful resolution. Yes, a reflective, political correct solution we all have been seeking. Cool!
Posted by: bubba Porter | March 31, 2009 8:36 AM
Now, it's time to drop the idiotic term: "The War on Drugs," too.
Posted by: Chris | March 31, 2009 9:02 AM
Hurray! This means we won the War on Terror and the Obama administration didn't even tell us. I hope Hillary lets Bin Laden know. But somehow, this reminds me of the "Newspeak" in the book, "1984," when Big Brother told us what words and phrases to use. New is old, dark is light, and terror is....just a walk in the park.
Posted by: Gordon | March 31, 2009 9:16 AM
This term was idiotic to begin with- you can't have a war against a tactic of warfare.
Posted by: mkcg | March 31, 2009 9:29 AM
Perhaps more relevantly the terror war can now be ascribed to the efforts of Limbuagh, O'Reilly, Beck, Coulter, etc.
Posted by: CD | March 31, 2009 9:37 AM
I feel much safer now that we have a
politically correct name for a movement that wants to destroy our civilization.
Posted by: crobb | March 31, 2009 9:48 AM
Finally the tranparency that obama has been talking about...soon we will hear that there never were any terrorists. This administration is sure making lots of progress...we just can't see it because it's tranparent.
Posted by: tim - chicago | March 31, 2009 9:59 AM
Waste of Tax Payer's money that brought this recession we are facing today,......Can't tell who won or who is winning.
Posted by: Wishing Saint | March 31, 2009 10:10 AM
The new term is "Surrender to Terror".
Posted by: brad | March 31, 2009 10:16 AM
Let's drop that even longer war - "War on Poverty". That's been a smashing success
Posted by: Terry | March 31, 2009 10:36 AM
If you just change the name of anything unpleasant it will just go away. My favorite is when they changed toxic assets to legacy assets, it just sounds so pleasant.
Posted by: vla | March 31, 2009 10:36 AM
Whenever she speaks, I get scared. I would never vote for her, I am not part of her "we" and it is a war on terrorism. She somehow in her delusional state actually thinks that everyone listens and will obey the crap coming out of her. To not to call it (the war on terrorism} what it is just proves that it is not her mouth she speaks out of but the other mouth that is attached to her rear end.
Posted by: John | March 31, 2009 10:38 AM
I picture all the Chinese delegates that she met with, after she left, laughing at the notion they will take her seriously. They want to kill our dollar and she is acting like a USA comfort girl.
Posted by: John | March 31, 2009 10:40 AM
I can remeber back in 02 and we were just about to go over to Afganisatn. They had a camera crew focused on an Afgan family that was upset that we were coming over there to destroy his country. He made the statement that if we kill Osama, then he will become Osama. And if we kill him then his son will become Osama etc, etc. We have done a terrible job at stopping terrorism, but a great job at creating terrorists!! We have not learned that you cannot kill a thought or idea. So what's next kill everyone who even thinks about hurting us. Good luck with that!! We can't stand each other half the time.
Posted by: karina | March 31, 2009 10:57 AM
Political correctness run amuck...again. Change we can believe in...Hah!
Posted by: phil | March 31, 2009 10:58 AM
"war on terror" was and is a term
for lowest-common-denominator simpletons in the first place..
one might as well decalre a "war
on jealousy" for all the good it
would do!
the more legacies of the Bush
years we lay to rest, the better.
Posted by: David Cross | March 31, 2009 11:05 AM
Hey David C...I can't wait to see the messiah's legacy...there never were any terrorists...right? liberals are the simpletons.
Posted by: tim - chicago | March 31, 2009 12:04 PM
Better yet-
Obama's English
Posted by: Inky | March 31, 2009 12:16 PM
Those republicans hate name changes. The one they hate the most is the change to "In Charge".
Posted by: bill r. | March 31, 2009 12:23 PM
So Tim in Chicago
Your saying there was no Terrorists or Terrorism before your Messiah Bush declared War on Terror? Conservatives are so ignorant and will say anything to the uneducated voters.
Posted by: John | March 31, 2009 12:32 PM
I guess the plan is to change reality by changing our vocabulary. Gee, I wish had been smart enough to think of that. We could morph bin Laden into a "disaffected minority spokesperson" with a simple turn of phrase. Shazam! That's change we can believe in. Yep.
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspirator | March 31, 2009 2:32 PM
Hey John...say anything to the uneducated voters...isn't that how your messiah got elected? I never claimed bush to be the messiah as the liberals have with H. But if you can honestly say you are happy with H than there's nothing I can say to you...I don't believe in socialism.
Posted by: tim - chicago | March 31, 2009 3:28 PM