Question: What Is a War on Terror?

Answer: It's a metaphor -- just like the war on poverty and the war on drugs. The problem with the Bush administration is that it has taken a metaphor literally:

We -- the media and the American public -- have accepted almost without question the "War on Terror" metaphor. It makes for good headlines and convenient television news logos. But has the war metaphor led us astray in the five years since the Sept. 11 attacks?

The shock and anger in the aftermath of the attacks certainly had Americans ready to fight, to take up arms against those who had attacked the nation in such a horrific way. The instinct to fight back when threatened is natural enough, and when nations fight back, it's often through war.

The instinct served well early on. The Taliban leaders in Afghanistan were openly harboring the leadership of al-Qaida, the group by then clearly responsible for 9/11. The United States was justified, and most of the world agreed, in routing a government aiding and abetting the perpetrators.

There could clearly be a war on the Taliban. But a war on terror or terrorism? One is an emotion; the other is a tactic, applied throughout history, usually by the underdog, in causes both ignoble and noble. [Emphasis added.]

Politicians have used the war metaphor before, declaring war on poverty, crime and drugs.

With President Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty, the war metaphor benefited from irony; instead of mobilizing the military to take lives, we would mobilize social systems to save lives.

The metaphor evokes notions of an all-out effort, with everyone pitching in and sacrifices made all around, with the mission being no less than to save the nation. (Usually involving tax increases.) Only absolute victory and the complete capitulation of the enemy are acceptable.

In war, things that would not be tolerated in other times become acceptable: the killing of innocents in bombings (even nuclear) and crossfires, the diminution of civil liberties and government's assumption of extraordinary powers. The same risks arise in our metaphorical wars.

And a state of metaphorical war can make real war more likely. Once the rationale for the invasion of Iraq -- WMD and terrorist links -- dissolved, the Bush administration has framed Iraq as ground zero in the metaphorical war on terror.

In the wake of 9/11, Professor Jayne Docherty of Eastern Mennonite University warned, "If we describe this as a war, we betray all our own highest values of justice, due process and fairness."