There are two words that should be consigned to the dustbin of the last decade. One is "terror", the other is "al Qaeda". Neither has any meaning outside news media and so called intelligence agencies. People have not been terrorised, they are boarding aircraft as readily as 10 years ago. And "al Qaeda" has had no visible existence since its camps were destroyed in Afghanistan, though you need to read references to it in newspapers closely to notice that.
The words obscure more than they illuminate. They are probably the reason we are no closer to comprehending and counteracting the suicidal murder missions of young Muslims than we were a decade ago. Those who bequeathed these words to the world are not going to let the language be changed easily. When President Obama responded calmly to the attempt to blow up an airliner over the United States on Christmas Day former vice-president Richard Cheney accused him of pretending America is not at war.
US newspapers have been just as determined to keep their Bush-era demons and easy headlines. Obama has been criticised from left and right. Obama is being merely accurate when he uses the language of crime rather than war and regards these killers and would-be killers as criminals.
The words obscure more than they illuminate. They are probably the reason we are no closer to comprehending and counteracting the suicidal murder missions of young Muslims than we were a decade ago. Those who bequeathed these words to the world are not going to let the language be changed easily. When President Obama responded calmly to the attempt to blow up an airliner over the United States on Christmas Day former vice-president Richard Cheney accused him of pretending America is not at war.
US newspapers have been just as determined to keep their Bush-era demons and easy headlines. Obama has been criticised from left and right. Obama is being merely accurate when he uses the language of crime rather than war and regards these killers and would-be killers as criminals.
