How the ‘war on terror’ changed the language of conflicts in the United States
After the September 11, 2001 attacks, political and military vocabulary spread in the United States that described the use of force and restrictions on human rights through bureaucratic euphemisms. This is stated in an Al Jazeera English report dedicated to the consequences of the war on terror declared by the administration of George Bush. Torture was called “enhanced interrogation techniques,” the secret transfer of detainees across borders was termed “extraordinary rendition,” and lethal strikes were described as “surgical” or “targeted.”
A war without defined boundaries
Nine days after the attacks in New York and Washington, US President George Bush told Congress that the war on terror began with al-Qaeda but would not end until every terrorist group of global reach had been found, stopped and defeated. Before that, Congress had adopted an authorization for the use of military force, which Bush signed on September 18, 2001.
Christopher Baker-Beall, a lecturer in international relations, noted that terrorism is not a state, a territory or a separate organization, but a tactic. In his view, the phrase “war on terror” created a conflict without clear geographical boundaries, a defined enemy or a natural endpoint. Bush’s rhetoric also contrasted allies and enemies through the categories of good and evil.
Euphemisms and expanded powers
The United States invaded Afghanistan less than a month after the September 11 attacks, and in March 2003 a US-led coalition invaded Iraq. The Bush administration repeatedly stated that Saddam Hussein’s regime possessed stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, but no such stockpiles were later found.
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Nearly 780 people passed through the US military prison at Guantanamo. As the outlet notes, almost all of them, except for a few, were later released without charges, while some were held without charge for two decades. The CIA also operated secret overseas detention sites, while the abuse and torture of prisoners by US military personnel at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq became one of the major scandals of this campaign.
Forty-five days after September 11, Bush signed the Patriot Act, which significantly expanded the powers of US authorities to conduct surveillance and share personal data. In 2002, the US Department of Homeland Security was created, bringing together agencies responsible for borders, migration, transportation and security.
Legacy after the rhetoric changed
President Barack Obama announced the end of the “war on terrorism” in May 2013, but the institutions and approaches created after September 11 remained. Researchers cited by Al Jazeera English believe that the logic of preventive security and the practice of portraying certain groups as a potential threat still affect US politics, migration control and foreign-policy rhetoric.
