Obama Renames the War on Terror

On the Washington Post, there is story about Obama change another term about terrorism

Political correctness has reared its ugly head again. A few weeks ago, it was reported that the term “enemy combatant” is no longer permitted. Now, the term “Global War on Terror” is no longer permitted. The Obama administration will now use the term “Overseas Contingency Operation.”

I guess the war has changed and needs a new term. Maybe, the Islamic terrorists have changed. No. The President has changed and their philosophy of what terrorism has changed.

Clinton treated Islamic terrorism as a legal issue and not a war issue. Clinton tried to capture, try, and jail terrorists. He did this while they declared war on the U.S. and attacked us. They bombed the World Trade Centers with a Ryder truck. They bombed embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. They bombed the USS Cole.

After 911, Bush changed this policy and declared war on Islamic terrorism and fought back against them. He started to kill terrorists all over the world. He attacked and killed them in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and all over Africa. There are probably other missions that we don’t even know about. During this time, the U.S. has not been attacked. There have been attempts, but no successful attacks.

Now, Obama is changing the philosophy again, except we really don’t know what his philosophy is. Most likely, it is going to revert to mostly what Clinton did and try to downplay and capitulate to Islamic terrorists. They are going to try to arrest and jail them again.

All this does is show our enemy weakness, which is what encourages them to attack. It emboldens them. This is going to make us less safe and encourage future attacks. Again, Obama is showing his naïveté in a dangerous new world. They want to kill us no matter what we do. This is what they have said to us. So, I would say take their word for it and not take them lightly.

That means we need to stay on the offensive and stay on a war stance, not cower behind some new Political correct words.

Here is the Post story:

The end of the Global War on Terror -- or at least the use of that phrase -- has been codified at the Pentagon. Reports that the phrase was being retired have been circulating for some time amongst senior administration officials, and this morning speechwriters and other staff were notified via this e-mail to use "Overseas Contingency Operation" instead.

"Recently, in a LtGen [John] Bergman, USMC, statement for the 25 March [congressional] hearing, OMB required that the following change be made before going to the Hill," Dave Riedel, of the Office of Security Review, wrote in an e-mail. "OMB says: 'This Administration prefers to avoid using the term "Long War" or "Global War on Terror" [GWOT]. Please use "Overseas Contingency Operation.'"Riedel asked recipients to "Please pass on to your speech writers and try to catch this change before the statements make it to OMB."

An OMB spokesman took issue with the interpretation of OMB's wishes. "There was no memo, no guidance," said Kenneth Baer. "This is the opinion of a career civil servant."

Referring to the phrase "global war on terror," Baer said, "I have no reason to believe that would be stricken" from Hill testimony.

By way of history, senior Bush administration officials several years ago wanted to stop using the phrase and switch to something many felt might better reflect the realities of the fight against international terrorism.

One leading option was to change the name to GSAVE, or Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism. This was not as catchy an acronym as GWOT, but officials felt it more accurately described the battle. Then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld even used the GSAVE abbreviation publicly.

But, in a White House meeting, President Bush ruled that it was still a war for him, and Rumsfeld and everyone else went back to GWOT.