George Lakoff on dropping "War on Terror" for "Global Struggle..."

[bleever]

Lakoff looks at the implications of the * administration trying to change the story-line by substituting "Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism" for "War on Terror" (from Alternet):

The "War on Terror" is no more. It has been replaced by the "global struggle against violent extremism".

/snip/

The war frame is all-consuming. It takes focus away from other problems, from everyday troubles, from jobs, education, health care, a failing economy. It justifies the spending of huge sums, and sending raw recruits into battle with inadequate equipment. It justifies the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent civilians. It justifies torture, military tribunals, and no due process. It justifies scaring people, with yellow, orange, and red alerts. But, while it was politically useful, the war frame never fit the reality of terrorism. It was successful at consolidating power, but counterproductive in dealing with the real threat.

/snip/

That policy is now being disowned, and so the words must be dropped. The hope is, in the absence of the old words and the presence of the new, a new frame will take hold and the old policy will be forgotten. The goal is that the public will no longer associate the Iraq War with terrorism and see the failure in Iraq as a failure to curb terrorism. That way most of the troops can be brought home before the midterm elections without the implication that the administration is giving up on stopping terrorism.

An interesting analysis.

http://www.alternet.org/story/23810/?comments=view&cID=19902&pID=19897#c19902

[jokerman93]

1. Crazy, man!

"Substituting 'Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism" for 'War on Terror'".

What's up with that? The Terror mantra is wearing thin? Americans are bored with it? Not buying it as much? Or does this unexpected reinvention of our beloved war have more insidious aspects than mere product marketing by the neocons?

When I think about it, "Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism" casts a much wider net, and when it serves, could be more broadly interpreted to include legitimate governments and political dissident groups.

This New World Order thing seems to be expanding its reach.

Hey! Keep yer heads down folks.

[jean]

2. bush is going to CUT AND RUN - say it loud and often

[Patsy Stone]

3. A war of choice by any other name

is still a war of choice. :hi:

[Jade Fox]

4. This seems foolish: Bush won't be able to exploit 9/11 if he.....

stops beating the word "terror" to death. Global struggle seems too vague
to garner the same knee-jerk response.

Try it Bush, ya moran.

[bleever]

5. My own feeling is that we're looking at New Coke here. They'll see

it going over like a lead balloon, then make a big deal and act like they're doing us a favor by bring back "War on Terror Classic".

[Eloriel]

6. It's also a wonderful way to be able to target Americans at home

you know, the ones protesting the administration or the war or anything else? They can now be called extremists and get shipped off to Gitmo, sans benefit of Constitutional guarantees against that.

And if there's an absence of violence (in the "violent extremists" language), why our own infiltrating FBI or Pentagon-domestic-spies can provide it, I'm sure. There's plenty of precedence for that, going back at least to the 60s.

[bleever]

7. NOT that anybody would ever want to do that. Except to extremists

like "voting rights activists", or "environmental activists", or "anti-administration activists".

Or Peaceniks, or Refuseniks, or Democrats...

[thebigidea]

8. I thought Bush already reframed the reframing back to the original frame.

back to the drawing board, Lakoff!

gawd, i'm getting tired of this framing stuff.

[Igel]

9. I'd think that "struggle" would be a very loaded word.

We're constantly told that 'jihad' = "struggle".

[rodeodance]

11. bush does not agree with the new phrase--an article a day or so ago

on DU was posted about this.

[kliljedahl]

10. He's now a "Struggle President."

From Borowitz today: "Elsewhere, President Bush overruled advisors who wanted to change the name of the “war on terror” to the “global struggle against violent extremism,” arguing that the latter phrase contained words over two syllables. "


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