The war against parts of speech

Marty: Would that be also true then for the war on terror, as it is described today, does that limit debate and discussion?

Stefan: Well, I think it does, I mean I think uh the con- th- the phrase "the war on terror" uh as- as if there could be a war on an adjective, I mean it's- it's just- or an adverb - it doesn't really work.

Stefan is Stefan Halper, and if you click on the link - here at Language Log - taking you to the interview in which he says this, you'll find that things don't get too much better by way of explaining why we should abjure talk of a 'war on terror'. Halper says, for example, that terrorism is differentiated, used by different kinds of groups, with different ideas and in different contexts, all of which we have to understand. It's a good thing these arguments didn't prevail during the Second World War, thought of by many as a war against fascism. You know Germany, and Italy, and Japan... different countries, different contexts. As if there could be a war against a bunch of proper nouns and conjunctions. (Thanks: RB.)