Tossing GWOT
by digby
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the Obama administration has stopped using “war on terror,” breaking with the Bush administration’s terminology in describing the conflict with al Qaeda and militant Islam. “The administration has stopped using the phrase, and I think that speaks for itself,” Mrs. Clinton told reporters as she traveled here for a United Nations-led conference on Afghanistan. The phrase has been criticized as having inflammatory connotations in the Muslim world. Some Democratic officials believe it is better to describe more specifically whom the U.S. is fighting, such as al Qaeda or the Taliban.
It’s a good first step. But it would be even more meaningful if the Department of Defense would get with the program and stop issuing these:
This is actually a pretty important step and one that should be formalized. The GWOT was a “war” that justified all the outrageous unitary executive moves legalized by John Yoo under his “commander in chief in wartime is a functional dictator” argument. By declaring that war officially over, it would put another nail in the coffin of those unconstitutional rulings.
Remember, they initially gave that medal out to military which participated in the domestic “Airport Security Operation” after 9/11. Let’s just say they had a somewhat “expansive” view of the GWOT from the very beginning since they created a military medal for a US military operation on American soil. And it’s creepy. They should get rid of it.
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