Day 5 Are We at War Yet? Are We at War? by Amy Davidson The President called the fight against ISIS a “counterterrorism campaign.” When it comes to military action, what’s in a name? CREDIT ILLUSTRATION of President Obama BY TOM BACHTELL “Mr. President, everybody is asking in this country, are we or are we not at war?” a reporter asked Harry Truman at a White House press conference on June 29, 1950. It was a reasonable question: two days earlier, in response to a swift, unexpected advance of North Korean troops, Truman had ordered American forces to South Korea. In keeping with the rules of the time, the reporters asked the President for permission to print his answer verbatim. “The Chief Executive responded that he would allow the news men to use in quotes: ‘We are not at war,’ ” the Times noted. One of the reporters then asked if “police action under the United Nations” would be a more appropriate phrase. Truman said that that sounded right. The “police action” lasted three years (or longer, by some measures; there are still American troops in South Korea), and the term was eventually retired as a label for what Presidents don’t want to call wars. Last Wednesday night, in a televised address from the White House, President Barack Obama presented his strategy for how to “degrade and ultimately destroy” the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham, or ISIS. “We will not get dragged into another ground war,” he declared. His plan calls for air strikes in two countries, a multinational coalition, and the deployment of four hundred and seventy-five more service members to Iraq, but, he said, those troops “will not have a combat mission.” They will execute a “counterterrorism campaign.” READ MORE HERE: newyorker/magazine/2014/09/22/name-fight?utm_source=tny&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailyemail&mbid=nl_091514_Daily&CUST_ID=31184944&spMailingID=7101504&spUserID=NzQ4ODk2NjQxOTMS1&spJobID=521527639&spReportId=NTIxNTI3NjM5S0
Posted on: Tue, 16 Sep 2014 01:34:13 +0000
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