Did the "war on terror" end?

Posted By Joshua Keating Monday, March 23, 2009 - 6:29 PM Share

At least it seems to have in official Pentagon communications:

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.'"

Remember that the Bush administration previously tried to replace GWOT with GSAVE -- Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism -- without a whole lot of luck.

I don't really anticipate Obama's new nomenclature having much more success, mainly because no editor in his right mind is going to leave the phrase "overseas contingency operation" in an article lead.

Sorry guys. You're stuck with GWOT.

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