"The war on terror" is silly.

[Oversoul]

For a couple years now, one term that I'm hearing thrown around a lot is "the war on terror." That seems to me to be a silly term...

As far as I know, wars are typically fought between two nation and sometimes more...

Well, I checked the CIA world fact book, and I can't seem to find a nation with the name "Terror." In fact, I'm pretty sure that "terror" is this noun right here:

ter·ror ( tµr“…r) n. 1. Intense, overpowering fear. See note at fear . 2. One that instills intense fear: a rabid dog that became the terror of the neighborhood. 3. The ability to instill intense fear: the terror of jackboots pounding down the street. 4. Violence committed or threatened by a group to intimidate or coerce a population, as for military or political purposes. 5. Informal An annoying or intolerable pest: that little terror of a child. [Middle English terrour from Old French terreur from Latin terror from terr¶re to frighten] --AHD

Now if I'm wrong, then that changes a lot of things, but I believe that as far as this "war on terror" is concerned, we are referring to definition #4.

I suppose that a country could declare a war on terror, just as much as a country could declare a war on drugs (and that worked beautifully). While we're at it, why not declare war on evil, corruption, rape, treachery, and any other bad things that come to mind? Why not declare war on death? Or how about a war on stupidity: why not push absurdity to the absolute limit?

 

[Spiderman]

I think there's a war on stupidity... but it's not going well either. It's called "school"

Seriously, I think the phrase "war on terror" is a sound byte and could have been derived from "war on terrorism". Maybe not, but it seems like a convenient way for the government to explain what and why they're doing what they're doing right now.

 

[Bobby_103]

Believe me, I hate catch phrases and "buzz" words as much as the next guy. I believe that the war on terrorism has been a long time coming though. I'm not sure how you could ever totally wipe out terrorism and those who promote it, but it sure is good to see the tables turned for a change. All these years terrorists have run the world over holding smaller countries with less ability and resources to fight them in a state of fear. Now that they picked on the biggest dog in the yard, they're being forced to run and hide.

 

[train]

War on terror is/was a soundbyte...

I actually think terrorism could be brought to the brinks of eradication... but would stay there and not make it to fruition...

 

[Spiderman]

There was a good article in either the Washington Post or Baltimore Sun on why the "war on terror" will never be won. Simply put, it's not a central foe but multiple groups which have their own aims and agenda and not necessarily working together. Look at the past weekend with Russia's school getting taken by terrorists and the consequent aftermath. The US isn't doing anything about that side - perhaps they're leaving it to the Russians, but if you leave it up to individual countries to deal with their "internal problems", you're going to have varying degrees of "success" (if you can call it that).

 

[train]

The reason I think it will reasch the brink...

Exactly what happened in Russia...

There isn't even a negotiation attempt in Chechnya's case - as it has gone all military - on both sides...

but with the school incident - Russia's stance on terrorism has changed to - kill all terrorists potentially threatening Russia...

isn't that what happened with the US?...

slowly but surely - it will become a global effort as citizens of each country die to major terrorist acts...

Considering the nature of 9/11 and the Russian school incident... And that the Russian incident was all kids and parents - GOING TO SCHOOL - I think it worse than 9/11...

As for the impact on the country - we have yet to see...

But puttig prices on their own heads, will eliminate those heads one by one... and the terrorists are headed that way...

 

[mythosx]

war on terror my arse....when president bush does something about the local school bully who shakes kids down for lunch money or pleasure, then he can call it a war on terror....

 

[Spiderman]

There isn't even a negotiation attempt in Chechnya's case - as it has gone all military - on both sides...

but with the school incident - Russia's stance on terrorism has changed to - kill all terrorists potentially threatening Russia...

Wha? There was totally a negotiation attempt. In fact, the Russia military said they weren't even going to storm the building until the accidental explosion and hostages started fleeing.

As far as I know, Russia hasn't changed its stance to kill all terrorists. I mean, its kill all rebels like it always has been, but in this hostage-type situation, there hasn't been a change.

 

[train]

Wha? There was totally a negotiation attempt.

I was speaking about the Chechnyan cessation(not the school instance)... the statement was that the relations between Russia and Chechnya have gone all military on both sides... instead of sitting down and coming to some resolution that could make both parties happy...

 

[Chaos Turtle]

I think we should have a war on war. Just go around bombing the crap out of anyone who bombs the crap out of anyone. Should be a pretty short war...if we start with the nearest offender.