Obama Orders Pentagon To Stop Using “War On Terror” Label
How…Orwellian.
The end of the Global War on Terror—or at least the use of that phrase—has been codified at the Pentagon. Reports that the phrase was being retired have been circulating for some time amongst senior administration officials, and this morning speechwriters and other staff were notified via this e-mail to use “Overseas Contingency Operation” instead.
“Recently, in a LtGen [John] Bergman, USMC, statement for the 25 March [congressional] hearing, OMB required that the following change be made before going to the Hill,” Dave Riedel, of the Office of Security Review, wrote in an e-mail.
“OMB says: ‘This Administration prefers to avoid using the term “Long War” or “Global War on Terror” [GWOT]. Please use “Overseas Contingency Operation.’”
Say what you want about President Bush, at least he had the cojones to call a war a war regardless of what it made his critics think of him. This is especially angering in that Obama is still, very much, waging this war. Our troops are going off to fight, and possibly die, in it in Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama is even increasing our deployment to Afghanistan. But he’s too much of a coward to call it a war. So when our troops die over there, they won’t have been fighting a “war.” They’ll have been participating in an “Overseas Contingency Operation.”
What a joke.
I think maybe it’s time to review this essay.
