The Daily Background

Politics makes for strange bedfellows, the old expression goes. That’s what I thought when I read the headline “GOP presidential candidate Giuliani questions term ‘war on terror’” and realized that I agree with him on the phrase “war on terror.” But I dislike it for totally different reasons that he dislikes the phrase.

Giuliani thinks that it makes the US seem warmongering and told reporters that “America is seen as a country by too many that wants to have war, or exercises its power too much, pushes its weight around too much… This is a terrorist war against us. We’ve got to keep reminding ourselves of the fact that they are in various parts of the world planning to come here and attack us or attack us overseas.”

The reason that I don’t like the term ‘war on terror’ is because it’s too vague. What is terror and what isn’t it? The Administration itself has said it won’t be clear when the fight is won (or lost for that matter). “Terror”– or rather terrorism is a strategy, not an enemy. Like the war on drugs, it isn’t a war on drugs or terrorism, or Nazis, or like any other war, but rather a war on those who use terrorism.

And who’s to say what that is or isn’t terrorism? Remember, this is the Administration that once called the biggest American teacher’s union a terrorist group.

Terror, or terrorism is a tool. You might as well wage a war on guns, or a war on submarine warfare. It’s absurd. No wonder there’s confusion over who we’re fighting.

Filed under: Z-TDB Blog