Britain stops using phrase 'war on terror'

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
The British government has stopped using the phrase "war on terror" to refer to the struggle against political and religious violence, a Cabinet minister was to say Monday. International Development Secretary Hilary Benn, a rising star of the governing Labor Party, says in a speech prepared for delivery in New York that the expression popularized by US President George W. Bush after the Sept. 11 attacks strengthens terrorists by making them feel part of a bigger struggle. Extracts from Benn's speech at New York University's Center on International Cooperation were released by his office. "We do not use the phrase 'war on terror' because we can't win by military means alone, and because this isn't us against one organized enemy with a clear identity and a coherent set of objectives," Benn said.