Take that, Chimpy!: Tony Blair Joins Dems In Abandoning 'War on Terror' Language

[BuyingThyme]

Britain shifts from U.S. ’war on terror’ approach

LONDON (AP)
World - Monday, April 16, 2007

A member of Tony Blair’s cabinet on Monday brought out into the open a quiet shift away from the U.S. view on combating extremist groups, acknowledging that British officials have stopped using the expression “war on terror” favoured by U.S. President Bush George W. Bush.

International Development Secretary Hilary Benn, a rising star of the governing Labour party, said the phrase strengthens terrorists by making them feel part of a bigger struggle.

“In the U.K., we do not use the phrase ’war on terror’ because we can’t win by military means alone, and because this isn’t us against one organized enemy with a clear identity and a coherent set of objectives,” Benn told a meeting in New York organized by the Center on International Co-operation think tank.

...

“What these groups want is to force their individual and narrow values on others without dialogue, without debate, through violence,” Benn said. “And by letting them feel part of something bigger, we give them strength.”

...

http://www.standard-freeholder.com/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=488902&catname=World&classif=News+Live

[aquart]

1. Good. It was phony PR crap from the getgo.

[diane in sf]

2. This is good, glad the world keeps turning and

the neocon hypnosis is increasingly broken

[BuyingThyme]

4. This is going to make it difficult for the Chimp to catapult

his standard "global war on terror" propaganda -- being that our only ally in the "global war on terror" thinks the "global war on terror" only feeds terrorism.

[porphyrian]

3. Nice of him to rejoin the left. - n/t

[Greeby]

5. The Cabinet are irrelevant to President Tony's decisions

So they can say what they like, doesn't mean he agrees with it