Obama discards Bush's 'war on terror'

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 12:44:34 GMT | PressTV

The US Secretary of State acknowledges that Bush's 'war on terror' phrase is "just not being used" in the Obama administration.

The new US administration of Barack Obama abandons the controversial term 'war on terror' popular with his predecessor George W. Bush. The expression was made up -- and heard regularly afterwards -- following the terrorist attacks on the International Trade Center in New York city on September 9, 2001.

The event provided the Bush administration with the footing to adopt the phrase "war on terror" which in term justified Washington's 'preemptive strikes' against other nations under the pretext of tracing down terrorist cells.

Bush took a bold stance on his administration's military choice and formulated his black-and-white policy that others are either “with us or against us". Passing disputed legislations on secret intelligence operations and spying, the US joined by its European allies invaded Afghanistan in 2001 in a bid to allegedly destroy the Taliban and al-Qaeda, to capture Osama bin Laden and bring security to the volatile region.

The US-led coalition then invaded oil-rich Iraq in 2003 under the pretext of finding weapons of mass destruction (WMD). In both cases, civilians paid a high price for the military interventions which were later drawn into serious challenge as the US army failed to either arrest Taliban and Al Qaeda leaders including Saudi millionaire Osama Bin Laden or discover the alleged weapons of mass destruction -- a claim that enticed many lawmakers in the US and British parliaments to agree with Iraq war.

Asked on the "war on terror" on the plane bringing her to The Hague on Monday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton acknowledged Obama administration had no special interest in using the expression. "As you said, the administration has stopped using the phrase, and I think that speaks for itself, obviously," she said.

Obama's secretary of state, who was to attend an international conference on Afghanistan in the Netherlands, added "I haven't heard it used. I haven't gotten any directive about using it or not using it. It's just not being used."