It's hard to keep up with it. Only the other day I noted how the Obama administration was dumping the phrase 'war on terror' in favour of 'overseas contingency operations'; and then also only the other day, but a different and less distant other day, I was telling you that the Pentagon denied this and professed a still active engagement in that aforesaid war; when - hoop-la-hoop and hopsy-di-back-again - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is saying that the administration has stopped using the phrase.
Having made myself, in some sort, a chronicler in this endlessly fascinating though somewhat confusing tale of usage and counter-usage, I take the opportunity here of citing the following:
During an April 26, 2007, debate in South Carolina, the moderator asked the eight Democratic candidates to raise their hand if they believed there is such a thing as a "Global War on Terror."
Clinton and Obama joined Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and Gov. Bill Richardson, D-N.M., in raising their hands, indicating that they believed that there is such a thing as a Global War on Terror, or GWOT.
If we are to believe Rasmussen Reports, quite a lot of other people think there is a war on terror, since in various proportions they think it's going well or going badly.