War on Terrorism

The phrase War on Terrorism (also known as “the War on Terror” or “the Global War on Terror/Terrorism”) refers to the broad military, political, and legal initiatives launched by the United States and its allies following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Although the phrase had been used as early as the 19th century, it came into widespread usage by the Bush administration following the 9/11 attacks to refer to a global campaign against terrorist organizations, individuals, and state sponsors of terrorism that included, but far exceeded, the al Qaeda network. In his 2002 State of the Union address, for example, President Bush defined the War on Terror very broadly as a campaign not just against al Qaeda but also against the “axis of evil,” consisting of Iraq, Iran, North Korea, and their “terrorist allies.” From its inception, the War on Terror had complex religious implications, some explicit and others less so.

While President Bush used the term crusade only once to describe the War on Terror, he did make consistent and repeated use of the language of “good versus evil” and numerous invocations of God, the Almighty, and Providence. Perhaps the clearest example of this use of religious rhetoric appeared in President Bush's 2003 State of the Union address, in which he made the strongest case for the invasion of Iraq. Here, the president first identified the “evil of international terror” with the “evil” of Saddam Hussein's regime; and he then identified the United States as the nation that has received the “call of history” to aid in the spread of freedom as God's gift to humanity:

Many critics of the War on Terror argued that its sweeping rhetoric has been used to justify a wide range of problematic and at times illegal agendas. These include the preemptive invasion of Iraq; a vast program of warrantless wiretapping; the use of harsh interrogation techniques such as waterboarding (which the United States itself considered torture after World War II), indefinite detentions, a network of secret CIA prisons, and other alleged human rights abuses. Moreover, many critics questioned the fundamental logic of declaring war on a tactic such as terrorism rather than on a specific nation or group, which would seem to imply a state of perpetual and unwinnable war.

In March 2009, the Pentagon under the new Obama administration ceased to use the phrase War on Terror and began to adopt the alternate phrase Overseas Contingency Operation to describe its efforts to combat global terrorist organizations. After the killing of Osama bin Laden by a U.S. military raid on his hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on May 2, 2011, many observers declared that the “War on Terror” was finally over.

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