I suppose I should have started this diary with a picture of a sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square, because
The War on Terror is Over!! So, the good news is the war is over...the bad news? Nothing has actually changed, the Bush administration just changed the
name. That's right, it's not a war, it's a
long-term struggle.
The Bush administration is retooling its slogan for the fight against Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups, pushing the idea that the long-term struggle is as much an ideological battle as a military mission, according to senior administration and military officials.
I suppose my first question has to be, do you think they planned for the struggle any better than they did the war? And what prompted this change in semantics?
Administration officials say the earlier phrase may have outlived its usefulness, because it focused attention solely, and incorrectly, on the military campaign.
Let the ideological battle begin!
You know, I laughed when I started reading the article, but it's actually quite frightening when you realize what is being said here. The role United States military is not to protect and defend our country, our people or our allies, it's mission is to change the world. We're now in a
Struggle "against the enemies of freedom, the enemies of civilization" or as Bush recently said,
"the worldwide clash of ideas."
Naturally this is being tied into the "realities of a post 9-11 world..."
Lawrence Di Rita, Rumsfeld's spokesman, said the change in language "is not a shift in thinking, but a continuation of the immediate post-9/11 approach."
"The president then said we were going to use all the means of national power and influence to defeat this enemy," Di Rita said. "We must continue to be more expansive than what the public is understandably focused on now: the military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq."
What does this all mean? Are we invading Syria? Iran? Massachusetts? They don't say. I'm guessing that having found out that planning for a war and its aftermath is hard work, the administration has moved into the next phase...shoring up those sagging poll numbers!
By stressing to the public that the effort is not only military, the administration may also be trying to reassure those in uniform who have begun complaining that only members of the armed forces are being asked to sacrifice for the effort.
New opinion polls show that the American public is increasingly pessimistic about the mission in Iraq, with many doubting its link to the counterterrorism mission. Thus, a new emphasis on reminding the public of the broader, long-term threat to the United States may allow the administration to put into broader perspective the daily mayhem in Iraq and the American casualties.
Good thinking! They certainly don't want the American people to focus on those pesky casualty figures or the bloody, unending insurgency, or having to listen to soldiers whining about sacrifice. In the end, I think this is what the name change is really all about.