Word: terrorã
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...position to say that a more transparent “War on Terror?? is a better “War on Terror,” because I admittedly don’t have the expertise. But as a reasonable and educated citizen, I can question whether it’s effective for the United States to hold, interrogate, report and embarrass people because of some dubious affiliation with Islamist organizations. That’s certainly not lessening the tension between the United States and the Islamic world; it is, however, keeping us in a constant state of fear...
Thus far, the rhetorical devices are easy to diagnose, simply canny use of language by a government disinterested in engaging problematic issues. Other strategies are rapidly becoming less obvious, and thus more troubling, as they gain widespread use. The expression “war on terror?? should in theory surprise many: it describes war against an abstraction, against a feeling. It is utter nonsense. A war on terror cannot be won; it implies endless opponents and a population in a constant state of alert. Bush himself said as much in an Aug. 30 NBC interview...
Perhaps Americans were open to the “war on terror?? because of their conversance with the war metaphor. Recent years have borne such concepts as the “war on drugs,” the “science wars” and the “Freud wars,” numbing us all to the strength and literal meaning of the word “war.” Referring to this problem, philosopher of science Ian Hacking wrote a few years ago, “Metaphors influence the mind in many unnoticed...
...terror?? was just another step in this development, but with a difference: Unlike other metaphors, the “war on terror?? engenders real conflicts in which real American citizens die. Yet to most, it is impossible to conceive of the present without the concept...
...misunderstand me: The enemies of the United States are real, and they are exceptionally determined. But they are people, human beings. The so-called “war on terror?? is not a battle against evil-incarnate. It should be a campaign to prevent desperate, angry people from taking up arms against us—and when they do so to defend the world from their attacks. It should not be a war of preemption against a list of potential adversaries; it should be a program of crucial preemptive action against the poverty, ignorance and political oppression which...