Donald Rumsfeld: Calling It A “War On Terror” Was A Mistake
Last week, Donald Rumsfeld was on Piers Morgan’s CNN show and said the thought it was a mistake to use the label “War On Terror””:
I’ve said many times myself, that calling the conflict with al Qaeda a “War On Terror” was like calling World War One a “War On Tanks.”
I wonder how those on the right who criticized the Obama Administration for moving away from the “War On Terror” rhetoric will react to this one.
It won’t matter in the slightest.
The reality of what Obama actually does or says is entirely disconnected from the reactions of the Right.
Yeah, IOKIYAR.
History suggests that these “War On…” phrases (War On Poverty, War On Drugs, War On Terror, etc.) are usually a bad idea. All politicians should keep that in mind in the future.
When you make war on an abstract noun the noun inevitably wins.
Am I too late to second the first four responses?
“competition of ideas”
He still doesn’t get it. It should have been “crime” from the beginning. The terrorists were mad bombers and criminals. They had no ideas worth considering. No sane or civilized person would endorse them. When Afghanistan sheltered Bin Laden it became a Criminal State.
It is really unbelievable to me how people who style themselves as the most anti-terrorist, or most anti-extremist, play it in a way the empowers their enemy. They give them too much respect.
(Now, some US-extremists may try to tell me that Muslim-extremists are tied too strongly to that religion … more idiocy. You rope steers you want out of the herd. And take them down in isolation. US policy, in Rumsfeld’s words “making more terrorists,” that comes from targeting the whole herd.)
Of course, maybe the neo-cons were always aware that they were going for the “competition of ideas” in preference. That is, they didn’t just want the war on terror. They wanted more.