Under Obama, 'war on terror' phrase fading

[IDemo]

Catchphrase burned into U.S. lexicon hours after Sept. 11 attacks is fading

AP -updated 3:52 a.m. MT, Sun., Feb. 1, 2009

WASHINGTON - The "War on Terror" is losing the war of words. The catchphrase burned into the American lexicon hours after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, is fading away, slowly if not deliberately being replaced by a new administration bent on repairing the U.S. image among Muslim nations.

Since taking office less than two weeks ago, President Barack Obama has talked broadly of the "enduring struggle against terrorism and extremism." Another time it was an "ongoing struggle."

He has pledged to "go after" extremists and "win this fight." There even was an oblique reference to a "twilight struggle" as the U.S. relentlessly pursues those who threaten the country.

But only once since his Jan. 20 inauguration has Obama publicly strung those three words together into the explosive phrase that coalesced the country during its most terrifying time and eventually came to define the Bush administration.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28959574/

[napi21]

1. It's about damn time1 This was a stupid Bushism that should never

have ebbn adopted to begin with! It's also about time we dispensed with the "war" on ANYTHING! They never work, and just make the world see us as a warmongering nation! Look how long the "war on drugs" has been around. Has it done anything except absorb money???

[Paranoid Pessimist]

2. The phrase may be fading but the build-up in Afganistan is not.

It will Vietnam us as surely as it did the USSR.