Reply #4: GUARDIAN: Britain stops talk of 'war on terror'

[yurbud]

What is a petulant spoiled brat to do when even his best friends don't bother to say his lies are true anymore?

Most welcome is the reason they are doing so, which critics of the Bush approach have said all along: Calling it the "War on Terror" elevates the few thousand people who do this crap to equals with actual states, a lot of prestige and respect they can use to recruit.

Better to talk about them like criminals, even when we occasionally need to ramp up our efforts to a real war on terror (not the Bush PR with terror alerts and checking breast milk for explosives).

Britain stops talk of 'war on terror'

Jason Burke
Sunday December 10, 2006
The Observer

Cabinet ministers have been told by the Foreign Office to drop the phrase 'war on terror' and other terms seen as liable to anger British Muslims and increase tensions more broadly in the Islamic world.

The shift marks a turning point in British political thinking about the strategy against extremism and underlines the growing gulf between the British and American approaches to the continuing problem of radical Islamic militancy. It comes amid increasingly evident disagreements between President George Bush and Tony Blair over policy in the Middle East.

<snip>

'It's about time,' said Garry Hindle, terrorism expert at the Royal United Services Institute in London. 'Military terminology is completely counter-productive, merely contributing to isolating communities. This is a very positive move.'

A Foreign Office spokesman said the government wanted to 'avoid reinforcing and giving succour to the terrorists' narrative by using language that, taken out of context, could be counter-productive'. The same message has been sent to British diplomats and official spokespeople around the world.


FULL TEXT:
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,,1968668,00.html