Bush era's 'War on terror' rhetoric has done more harm than good: Miliband.

Byline: ANI

London, Jan.15 (ANI): British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who is currently visiting Rahul Gandhi's parliamentary constituency in Amethi, Uttar Pradesh, has described the use of the "war on terror" as a western rallying cry, and added that it has been a mistake, and may have caused "more harm than good".

Delivering a comprehensive critique of its defining mission in an article for The Guardian, Miliband says the war on terror was misconceived and that the West cannot "kill its way" out of the threats it faces.

In remarks that will also be made in a speech today in Mumbai, in one of the hotels that was a target of the terrorist attacks in November, Miliband says the concept of a war on terror is "misleading and mistaken".

"Historians will judge whether it has done more harm than good," Miliband says, adding that, in his opinion, the whole strategy has been dangerously counter-productive, helping otherwise disparate groups find a common cause against the West.

"The more we lump terrorist groups together and draw the battle lines as a simple binary struggle between moderates and extremists or good and evil, the more we play into the hands of those seeking to unify groups with little in common," Miliband argues, in a clear criticism of the rhetoric of the Bush era.

"We should expose their claim to a compelling and overarching explanation and narrative as the lie that it is. Terrorism is a deadly tactic, not an institution or an ideology," he adds.

He goes on to say that "democracies must respond to terrorism by championing the rule of law, not subordinating it.

British officials are signalling, in increasingly public ways, that they cannot wait for the Obama team to take office next Tuesday, and wave goodbye to an eight-year administration with which they felt increasingly ill at ease, particularly following the departure of Tony Blair in 2007.

Miliband said last night that the incoming administration's proposed use of "smart power" meshed with his arguments.

"The new administration has a set of values that fit very well with the values and priorities I am talking about," he said during a visit to Amethi in northern India. (ANI)

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