It seems that a President is defined by his words.
Well one thing about the current administration that has always struck me
as disingenuous is to establish a "War on Terror".

Yeah, I am not thrilled about a war on Afghanistan, or a war on Iraq.
But the thing that bothers me about a "war on terror" is that instead of
calling this a police action - it is called a war. Putting it on that

footing is important - because it raises the bar of political rhetoric.
"We are at war", we are taking "prisoners of war", if you oppose the "war" then you are a traitor. But just who is this "war" against?

Webster's primary definition says that a war is "a state of usually open and declared armed hostile conflict between states or nations". However it is ironic to note that the derivation of the middle English werre is "akin to Old High German werran - to confuse".

By declaring a "war" against a vague goal, the administration can play a shell game. Bin Laden gets away? No problem, invade Iraq. Bad news in Iraq? No problem, invade Iran. (Or are we planning to bomb Iraq?) Remember: keep the ball moving!

Then there is the problem of taking prisoners during peacetime... Well, kind of hard to do unless you declare a war against somebody...

Truthfully, although there are plenty of "support our troops" bumper
stickers to go around - this has more the character of a police action
than a war. Until we went into Iraq - I would argue - we were not literally
at war. Are we rationing gas? Building lots of bombs? Kind of ho-hum here in the states. (Meaning no disrespect to those overseas.)

The other thing that is troubling is the department of "homeland security". "Homeland" is just one step away from "Fatherland", at least in English it has a very Nazi ring to it. This "homeland" of ours is a very vague thing. You'll notice that when you enter customs in Canada heading back to the US, you are notified immediately that you are on US territory.

After my father's tales from WWII - I will never be happy calling this "land of freedom" the "Homeland".

Learn more about this author, Richard Snow.
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