The War On The War On Terror

Peter Feaver debates the "war on terror" label:

The two views of whether we are at war or not can be reconciled -- if Obama intends to say that we are really at war, but we will voluntarily not use all of the tools of war because we do not need to. That is certainly a popular straddle today. Whether it will still be popular if the country suffers another terrorist attack remains to be seen. In the meantime, one of the things I will be watching in the coming months is how the Obama team navigates its way through the symbolic minefield of labeling the conflict.  Looking only at the President's own words and actions in the first two days, the team is off to a bit of a rough start.