Big surprise here.


The House Armed Services Committee is banishing the global war on terror from the 2008 defense budget.

This is not because the war has been won, lost or even called off, but because the committee’s Democratic leadership doesn’t like the phrase.

A memo for the committee staff, circulated March 27, says the 2008 bill and its accompanying explanatory report that will set defense policy should be specific about military operations and "avoid using colloquialisms."




Comments
on Apr 04, 2007
"avoid using colloquialisms."


Yea, 3000 coloquialims on 9-11, another 200 on 3-11, another 60 on 7-7. Lots of those pesky coloquialisms.
on Apr 04, 2007
"Democratic" is the correct adjective, not "Democrat." It would be like me calling somebody a member of the "Republic party."
on Apr 04, 2007
A memo for the committee staff, circulated March 27, says the 2008 bill and its accompanying explanatory report that will set defense policy should be specific about military operations and "avoid using colloquialisms."


Good news.
on Apr 05, 2007
Actually it's not just the Democrats who believe "War On Terror" isn't entirely appropriate.

President Bush;

"We actually misnamed the war on terror," he said. "It ought to be the Struggle Against Ideological Extremists Who Do Not Believe in Free Societies Who Happen to Use Terror as a Weapon to Try to Shake the Conscience of the Free World."

WWW Link

Rumsfield;

“I don’t think I would have called it the war on terror. … Why do I say that? Because the word ‘war’ conjures up World War II more than it does the Cold War. It creates a level of expectation of victory and an ending within 30 or 60 minutes of a soap opera. It isn’t going to happen that way. Furthermore, it is not a ‘war on terror.’ Terror is a weapon of choice for extremists who are trying to destabilize regimes and (through) a small group of clerics, impose their dark vision on all the people they can control. So ‘war on terror’ is a problem for me.”

WWW Link

Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Richard Myers;

“General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the National Press Club on Monday that he had ‘objected to the use of the term war on terrorism before, because if you call it a war, then you think of people in uniform as being the solution.’ He said the threat instead should be defined as violent extremism, with the recognition that ‘terror is the method they use.’”

WWW Link
on Apr 06, 2007
"Democratic" is the correct adjective, not "Democrat." It would be like me calling somebody a member of the "Republic party."



Actually, it is the Democrat and Republican parties. Of course, the Democrats love being called the "Democratic" party. It conjures up all of those wonderful feelings of democracy in action, the democratic majority, the democratic process, etc., etc., etc. Yet, if you have a preference, you declare yourself as a Democrat or a Republican. Not a "Democratic" or "Republicratic". But, as all good Democrats believe, it's the words that matter much more than the subject or the action. The label is what matters, not what the label is put upon or describes. And thus, we have political correctness in action. Yet, it is great to live in a democracy where all can air the opinion they wish without fear of reprisal or retribution. Oh, but wait, we happen to live in a constitutional republic. Perhaps your logic is correct, and a name change is relevant in these circumstances. So then we could have the Democratic Party and the Constitutional Republic Party. Wonder how the Democrats would respond to that?