Self contradictory or not, that phrase is the common currency used in the media. The New Yorker article proposes a more useful 'war on radical Islamism' which I would use myself, except that nobody else speaks in those terms. People often make the mistake of believing that all Islam is radical; they don't see the important differences between Islam and Islamism. It's just simpler to identify people by the tactics they use than by their beliefs, hence the phrase 'War on Terror.'
Just go with it, the term isn't meant as an assault on your intelligence.
|