War is oh so 2004. . .

The War on Terror is over! Well, the phrase is anyway. Reports are that it's going to be replaced with the less pithy "Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism." Gosh that just doesn't get the adrenalin going like the original, does it?

"For three years, the president didn't let an opportunity go by without repeating that we were in a global war against evil terrorists. But he's gone strangely silent ever since his reelection last November. My Brookings intern, Jina Chung, examined the text of Bush's speeches over the 12 months, as posted on the White House website to see how many times Bush referred to the 'war on terror' or some variant of the phrase in the six months since November 2 and how many times he did so in the six months prior the elections. Here's what she came up with: Before the elections, Bush mentioned the war on terror three times as often as after. In fact, he referred to it more often in the thirty days prior to the election (71 times) than in the six months since (66 times)."