London – A member of Tony Blair’s Cabinet on Monday brought out into the open a quiet shift away from the U.S. view on combating extremist groups, acknowledging that British officials have stopped using the expression “war on terror” favored by President Bush.
International Development Secretary Hilary Benn, a rising star of the governing Labor Party, said the phrase strengthens terrorists by making them feel part of a bigger struggle.
“In the U.K., 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 told a meeting in New York organized by the Center on International Cooperation think tank.
He said the real struggle pits the “vast majority” of the world’s people “against a small number of loose, shifting and disparate groups who have relatively little in common apart from their identification with others who share their distorted view of the world and their idea of being part of something bigger.
“What these groups want is to force their individual and narrow values on others without dialogue, without debate, through violence,” Benn said. “And by letting them feel part of something bigger, we give them strength.”
Bush first used the expression “war on terror” shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington; it still appears frequently in his speeches.
Many officials in Britain, the United States’ closest ally, feel the phrase is vague and simplistic, encouraging people to think that only military means are needed to overcome extremism. But Benn was the first official to go public with the British view.
In December, The Observer newspaper reported that Britain’s Foreign Office had asked politicians and diplomats to avoid the phrase because it is “counterproductive” and could alienate British Muslims.
The Foreign Office would not confirm that report Monday, but a spokesman said Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett did not use the phrase “war on terror,” preferring to emphasize that the fight against extremists is “not a clash or a war of civilizations.”
Benn urged Americans to use the “soft power” of values and ideas as well as military might to defeat extremism.
