h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

One thing that annoys me about George Bush's misused of words is his constant interchangable use of the word terrorism. I remember originally the war originally being called The War On Terrorism, I can think of no feasable reason why it was changed other than it was too long and it looked a bit clumpy in capital letters on the news.

So then it was changed to War On Terror, an entirely different meaning. Terrorism is defined by Chambers as:

terrorism noun the systematic and organized use of violence and intimidation to force a government or community, etc to act in a certain way or accept certain demands. terrorist noun, adj.
ETYMOLOGY: 18c.

"Violence and intimidation to force a government", so when the suicide bombers attacked London in July and the BBC were not allowed to call them terrorists, this wasn't, as my mother thought it was, "political correctness gone mad", it was in fact because at the time they had no motive and were therefore not terrorists.

And speaking of terrorists, in World War II the French Resistence bombed German U-Boats as they were leaving the Mediterranean Sea to help with the war effort, despite France having fallen in 1941. That was terrorism. Its not so black and white.

Terror, on the other hand, just for completeness' sake, means this:

terror noun 1 very great fear or dread. 2 something or someone which causes such fear. 3 colloq. a troublesome or mischievous person, especially a child.
ETYMOLOGY: 14c: from Latin, from terrere to frighten.

So when Bush says 'it's a war we'll never win' he isn't being silly, it's true - you can't wipe out fear throughout the world, can you?