Sources, you smarmy Red Star editors?

The Red Star published a brief editorial at the bottom of the page today (8/1/05) regarding the semantics of the War on Terror. The tone of the piece is reminiscent of the 6th grade, when the little girls would wag their fingers at the boys, and say "I told you so, I told you so". The only difference is the 6th graders would generally have a point.

Has the Red Star sunken so low, have they waited so long for a "gotcha" moment, that they came up with this:

It was announced last week in Washington by "senior administration and military officials" that no longer is the United States in a "war on terror." Henceforth, the nation will be engaged in a long-term "global struggle against violent extremism."
...
Well, blow us over with a feather. Just what the Europeans and a whole lot of others have been saying all along. Of course, until now they've all been treated like cheese-eating, terrorist-coddling surrender monkeys. But it turns out they were right after all. Mea culpa, anyone?

The alleged "senior administration and military officials" are not sourced, and we at Rambix and the Red Star suspect there is a context issue here. The first part of the first paragraph comes from the unnamed sources, and the second part of the first paragraph includes a quote from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Richard Meyers. His quote is not specific on the "renaming" of the War on Terror. The juxtaposition makes it appear that he endorses the unsourced idea (who would accuse the Red Star of manipulating text to advance their agenda?).

In any event, the editors at the Red Star are desperate to take the president down a notch. Isn't it self-evident? They've resorted to childish finger-pointing for Pete's sake. Nyah nyah nyah. (And by the way, not all Europeans are cheese-eating surrender monkeys - that is for the French. And they still are).

As the man from the previous post would say, "C'monnn".