Dropping the TWAT
The Foreign Office has unveiled guidelines that advise cabinet ministers to drop the phrase ‘the war against terror’ or TWAT, if you’re looking for a cheap gag. The reason given for the decision is because the phrase is liable to “anger British Muslims and increase tensions more broadly in the Islamic World”.
The shift marks a turning point in British political thinking about the strategy against extremism and underlines the growing gulf between the British and American approaches to the continuing problem of radical Islamic militancy. It comes amid increasingly evident disagreements between President George Bush and Tony Blair over policy in the Middle East.
Does the Foreign Office really believe dropping this phrase will diffuse British Muslim anger and broadly decrease tensions in the Islamic World? Maybe in the next world baby.
Who in the Foreign Office comes up with this chicanery? This, the same FO who, back in 2003, supplied Bush, Blair and Cheney the “intelligence” that Southern Iraqis would be showering the invading Coalition forces with…flowers. What a bunch of TWATs.
