Miliband condemns US 'war on terror': Business Recorder

MUMBAI (January 16 2009): British Foreign Secretary David Miliband on Thursday delivered a sharp critique of outgoing US President George W. Bush's foreign policy, declaring the concept of a "war on terror" was "mistaken." Speaking in India at one of the hotels targeted in the militant attacks on Mumbai, Miliband distanced the British government from the Bush administration shortly before Barack Obama takes over the White House.

"For a couple of years now the British government has used neither the idea nor the phrase 'war on terror,'" he said. "The reason is that ultimately the notion is misleading and mistaken. Historians will judge whether it has done more harm than good. But we need to move on to meet the challenges we face." Miliband said that the phrase "war on terror" had successfully "captured the gravity of the threats we face.

"But he said it "gave the impression of a unified, transnational enemy, embodied in the figure of Osama bin Laden and the organisation of al Qaeda," when in fact "terrorism is a deadly tactic, not an institution or an ideology." Echoing themes from an article he wrote in the British daily The Guardian ahead of the speech, Miliband suggested the phrase "war on terror" had actually helped extremists.

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