Aired 9/29/06 Tired of War

We have this tendency in America to want to call everything a war. We have a 'War on Christmas' and an all-encompasing 'Culture War' not to mention the big 'War on Terror'. Not to mention the REAL war (with real bombs and guns and deaths) in Iraq. Don't we seem a little like those folks in the mideast who scream 'Jihad' at the stroke of a cartoonist's pen?

Yet the NIE confirms this week that the part of the War on Terror that is hurting more than it is helping is the WAR part (or at least the war in Iraq).

You may say "hey, it is just an expression" but when you call something a war then conflict is the realm and opponents become enemies. Positions become hardened, options become limited, and extreme measures become justified. Would congress have just approved suspending Habeas Corpus if we instead had spent the last five years talking about the struggle against islamic extremists, or the challenge of islamic extremists, or the confrontation with islamic extremists?

Tags: War, media, Iraq, islam, politics, podcast