I wrote an article in The Wall Street Journal recently about how the war on terror is a false metaphor that has led to counterproductive and self-defeating policies. Five years after 9/11, a misleading figure of speech applied literally has unleashed a real war fought on several fronts -- Iraq (photograph, above), Gaza, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Somalia -- a war that has killed thousands of innocent civilians and enraged millions around the world. Yet Al Qaeda has not been subdued.

In the Journal article, I list four reasons why the war on terror is self-defeating. Most importantly, it creates innocent victims -- thus bolstering the rage and resentment on which terrorism feeds.

Second, 'terror' is an abstraction, so the false metaphor prevents us from dealing with each terrorist manifestation as something real and specific. We put Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Qaeda, the Iraqi insurrection, et all in the same bag -- and that's a very simplistic and inadequate way to look at the world!

Third, the war on terror emphasises military action when most terrorist threats really need a political approach. For instance, in Iraq there can be no settlement that is not a political settlement. An imposed democracy from the outside may not work at all.

Finally, there is the differentiation between 'us' and 'them' -- they are the terrorists, we are the good guys -- and such a construct can blind us. America is still the most successful of open societies in the world, but our society is endangered by the increasing differentiation between 'us' and 'them' that prevents our understanding how our actions influence their behaviour.

This 'us/them' split permeates the American psyche and is a fundamental characteristic of the Bush administration. The Patriot Act basically hits non-citizens much harder than citizens and reinforces the differentiation between the rights of citizens and universal human rights. That's why you have the problem of the Guantanamo base. And because Bush has played up fear, Americans care much less about universal human rights. I think that is one of the worst side effects of the war on terror.

Photograph: Christophe Simon/AFP/Getty Images Also read: Gandhian way to mark 9/11

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