In what will surely be seen as a break from the United States, the British are set to stop using the phrase “war on terror” when talking about the war against Islamic extremists:
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.
In some sense, this isn’t a bad idea. I’ve never thought that the “war on terror” was an appropriate phrase to describe the conflict the world is presently engaged in. Terrorism is despicable, but it is just another military/political tactic. Calling this war the “war on terror” is, in some sense, akin to referring to World War II as the “war on tanks.” We’re not fighting a military tactic, we’re fighting an ideology. And a lot of people don’t seem to recognize this fact.
The problem with the British move, I think, is the reason that they are doing this. Why would a phrase like “war on terror” offend otherwise peaceful British Muslims ? Logically, it shouldn’t. The problem is that there are those in the West who don’t want to name evil for what it is, and to call this war what it really to be called — the War on Islamic Fascism.
