War with an abstract noun

War with an abstract noun
: Imre Salusinszky, columnist on The Australian, writes about the inexplicable resistance of the resistance to the war on terror

One of the things you hear said about Australia, too, during World War II is that people put aside their differences and pulled together when confronted with a common foe who threatened everything they held dear. If that is so, it raises all the more insistently the puzzle of why the war on terror, rather than drawing everyone together once again, appears only to have deepened existing divisions.

A group in our society

7 responses to “War with an abstract noun”

  1. lk Avatar

    “…it utterly rejects the mainstream interpretation of the conflict…”. What is the mainstream interpretation of the conflict? Shouldn’t he have said “…my interpretation of the conflict…”.

  2. MommaBear Avatar

    He spoke to the feelings of the many tens of thousands who don’t have a newspaper column in which to voice a simple thought.

  3. lk Avatar

    Millions of people do not have newspaper columns. I object to the misuse (by a grammar teacher) of the word “mainstream”.

  4. Angus Jung Avatar
    Angus Jung

    lk Objects to Something
    Presses Fail to Stop

  5. lk Avatar

    Angus – thanks for noticing.

  6. Angus Jung Avatar
    Angus Jung

    You’re welcome.

  7. parallel Avatar
    parallel

    I would take issue with the writer’s history as well. Australians did not sink their differences and pull together during the war – they were notorious for doing the opposite. Churchill commented on it in his war memoirs, and I seem to recall some Americans wondering at the waterfront strikes which delayed supplies to the troops overseas.