After the War on Terror: RUSI report

[Dayuhan]

[rant]

I cringe every time I hear people talk about the "War on Terror" or the "War on Terrorism". I understand that politicians have to speak in convenient sound bites and there will always be some who know no better than to parrot the rhetoric, but one expects more from an institution that describes its mission as "independent thinking".

Terrorism is a tactic, not an actor. It's a tactic that's been adopted at many times and in many places by many actors, state and non-state. It will surely be adopted again in the future, likely by movements we've not yet heard of. You don't fight a war against a tactic; you fight a war against one or more actors.

In this case we are fighting a war against a loosely organized coalition of largely non-state actors, straddling the interface between the political and the religious, that has chosen to adopt terrorism as one of its primary tactics. We are not fighting against terrorism.

How are we supposed to win a war if we're afraid to accurately identify who we're fighting against?

[/rant]