The Sunshine Empire

I’m currently watching Meet The Press and they are evaluating the effectiveness of President Barack Obama’s trip to Europe for the G-20 and NATO summit this week.  The panel discussion is not so much oriented around left to right political persuasion, but a former member of George W. Bush’s administration repeated something that is a common refrain of derision for conservatives.  Michael Gerson mocked the administration for not using the term “war on terror” and moving to the dry and bureaucratic “overseas contingency operation.”  This has been bubbling around for a while and I find it a supreme case of willful amnesia.  The Bush administration itself had publicly abandoned the term and had circulated several memos instructing offices to abandon the term.  The implication behind the derision is that Obama is somehow weaker due to his supposed feeling that changing language will appease Islamic extremists.  Even if it were true that the Obama Administration had abandoned the term it would mean nothing of the sort.  The use of “war on blank” is a tired American political cliche that creates an open ended conflict without end.  We all know of the successful conclusions of the wars on poverty and drugs.  If we don’t engage in political hyperbole and look at actions, the Obama administration’s sending over 20,000 more troops to Afghanistan and getting 5,000 NATO troops is more of a focus than the Bush administration ever showed to the base from which 9/11 was launched since March of 2003.