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Let's hear it for the ladies of the Obama administration: first Janet Napolitano and now Hillary Clinton are perfectly happy -- despite denials from OMB chief Peter Orszag -- to admit that they are no longer using the Bush administration's imprecise, fear-mongering "global war on terror" language. At TPM D.C., Brian Beutler reports:
Whether a directive's been issued or not, the administration has dropped GWOT from its lexicon. "I haven't gotten any directive about using it or not using it.... The administration has stopped using the phrase and I think that speaks for itself," said Clinton while en route to the Hague.Here's what Napolitano had to say about the "GWOT" language a few weeks ago, in an interview with the German newsweekly Der Spiegel:
SPIEGEL: Madame Secretary, in your first testimony to the US Congress as Homeland Security Secretary you never mentioned the word "terrorism." Does Islamist terrorism suddenly no longer pose a threat to your country?NAPOLITANO: Of course it does. I presume there is always a threat from terrorism. In my speech, although I did not use the word "terrorism," I referred to "man-caused" disasters. That is perhaps only a nuance, but it demonstrates that we want to move away from the politics of fear toward a policy of being prepared for all risks that can occur.--Dana Goldstein
