What was/is the war on terror?

Wiki is your friend:

U.S objective and strategies

The Bush Administration said it intended to base its counterterrorism strategy on several steps:[41]

1. Defeat terrorists and their organizations.
2. Identify, locate and destroy terrorists along with their organizations.
3. Deny sponsorship, support and sanctuary to terrorists.
1. End the state sponsorship of terrorism.
2. Establish and maintain an international standard of accountability with regard to combating terrorism.
3. Strengthen and sustain the international effort to fight terrorism.
4. Working with willing and able states.
5. Enabling weak states.
6. Persuading reluctant states.
7. Compelling unwilling states.
8. Interdict and disrupt material support for terrorists.
9. Eliminate terrorist sanctuaries and havens.
4. Diminishing the underlying conditions that terrorists seek to exploit.
1. Partner with the international community to strengthen weak states and prevent (re)emergence of terrorism.
2. Win the war of ideals.
5. Defend U.S. citizens and interests at home and abroad.
1. Implement the Nation Strategy for Homeland Security
2. Attain domain awareness
3. Enhance measures to ensure the integrity, reliability, and availability of critical physical and information-based infrastructures at home and abroad.
4. Integrate measures to protect U.S. citizens abroad.
5. Ensure an integrated incident management capability.

The United States strategy in the Global War on Terrorism is based on (as of January 2007) two strategy papers (The National Security Strategy and the Strategy for Countering Terrorism). Whereas the National Security Strategy highlights the preemptive option against so called haven states, the second strategy highlights the spreading of democracy as an antidote to terrorism. Democracy is supposed to be the remedy for frustration, a culture of conspiracy and violence that underly the development of terrorism. Yet, the causes of terrorism as presented in the strategies remain contested.

Someone slap a gold star on his paper so he'll shut off.

This looks oddly similar to Marso's list.

Funny, but I don't see 'oil' mentioned anywhere. I'm sorry. I don't mean to throw a damper on everyone's bumper sticker slogans.

I never bothered looking at wiki because we're not allowed to cite it.

The war on terror in terms of it's nature would be best described as an idealogy more than a actual war. It is, in essense, like a war on drugs or on crime. It is a collective term used to describe the efforts of civilised society to learn of an prevent situations harmful to the general public. Now, what bothers me is that this definition has been forgotten over time and, with significant help from it's orginator, the phrase is viewed by many Americans as an actual physical war. I think it's important to remember that the war on terror, as a phrase, does not been the West in engaged in an actually war. It is no more a physical war than the Cold War. However, even the cold war was still a more literal war since it had a militarised opponent. The W o T does not and, if the phrase is used properly, cannot even be said to be just a war on Islamic extremism. Again, I fear that it has been distorted and is, at best, a counter-terrorism strategy against muslims who want to cuase explosions.

I can't say I blame the British goverment for avoiding the use of the phrase from now on.

The Iraqi war on terror, as executed by the Bush administration, is necrophilia, gone even more horribly wrong than usual. It is the belief that George Bush's magic sperm will make murderous terror go away.

Chart thingy Sorry, more placeholder stuff