[Changleen]

High level policy review of WOT results in name change to less catchy, longer title in bid to bore and confuse Fox viewers before they realise what a failure it's been:

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/1fa8b972-d074-11d9-abb8-00000e2511c8.html

The administration of George W. Bush, is undertaking a high-level review of its overall policy in the war on terrorism to devise more effective approaches against an enemy that is weakened but dispersed more broadly.

The Washington Post reported on Sunday that the review would consider whether the US should shift away from efforts to capture and kill al-Qaeda leaders and focus instead on a broader campaign against “violent extremism”.

The review comes at a time when the number of terrorist attacks has been rising against civilians in Iraq and continuing at a high level in much of the world, despite the absence of direct attacks on US soil since September 11 2001.

The State Department's annual review of terrorism released last month reported more than 1,900 deaths from 651 terrorist attacks in the previous year. The administration's review appears to be in its early stages, and is likely to focus heavily on the emergence of a new generation of terrorists who are fighting against US forces in Iraq.

General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in television interviews on Sunday that the US was making significant progress in Iraq despite the continued violence. He said that US opponents there were using increasingly desperate tactics, shifting from attacks on US and Iraqi government forces to random assaults against Iraqi civilians.

“Nothing is working, and that means our strategy is working,” he said on Fox News Sunday.

In a separate interview on CBS News, he said that while the past month in Iraq had been violent, “I think the trend lines are up”, pointing in particular to the growing capabilities of Iraqi security forces.

Following the September 11 attacks, Mr Bush declared a broad war on terrorism and its state sponsors, a definition that included not only al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan, but also groups such as Hizbollah and Hamas in the Middle East and their government backers in Syria and Iran.

So far, the main effect of the review appears to be primarily rhetorical. A senior US official told the Post that, while the use of the phrase global war on terrorism “is catchy, there may be a better way to describe it”.

“What we really want now is a strategic approach to defeat violent extremism,” the official was quoted saying.

General Myers used the new term yesterday, noting that the US had detained 68,000 people “since this conflict against violent extremism began”.

Wow, 68,000 people! It must be costing a fortune to give all those people fair trials.

 

[Changleen]

I just realised: "conflict against violent extremism" = CAVE. How fitting for a presidency that has spent most of it's time keeping itself and the American people in the dark.