Sir Alan West sets out his stall

Politicians making spurious comments is one of those things that make me rave at the computer screen. Normally a mild mannered reporter I turn into a huge green mean machine.

So when the BBC reports the new UK security minister's comments on terrorism with a headline of ' Terror fight 'may take 15 years' I was shocked at the obvious sound biting. Look a little deeper and that is not quite what he said. The BBC have unusually made a sound bite which was not quite what the minister originally said. The actual quote in context is:

"We're talking about such a big change in the way people behave that it's inevitably going to take 10 to 15 years, and that's if we're lucky, and that's what I hope we can achieve."

-Admiral Sir Alan West, ex navy chief.

It is obvious to everyone that the war on terrorism is unlikely to be won for a long time. At best our country could be made almost completely safe from terrorism but the causes and will of terrorism would still be there. Sir Alan recognises this above but the BBC chose to interpret the quote to give a more sensationalist spin.

Th other part of this 'article' is to put 'everything' in 'quotes' as they add in little extra 'two or three' word quotes from his speech. Very irritating reporting style and one which does not fill me with confidence that they are accurately reporting what he said and not misquoting him out of context again.

The war on terrorism bears a resemblance to the Vietnam war. The Vietnam war was a battle for 'hearts and minds' and so is the war against terrorism. No country can be isolationist concentrating all its efforts in detecting plots and thwarting terrorism. Everyone need to encourage debate and fix the problems in the world which helps create terrorism.

Even though Sir Alan made the mistake of putting a time frame on things, the BBC article suggests that he is leading a sea change in government policy. The government is moving away from the concept of 'war on terror' which has never sat well with the British due to the American warmongering overtones.

Although difficult to make sense of the BBC sound bites it would seem that Sir Alan suggests greater emphasis will be put on intervening before terrorism. Sir Alan raises the issue of jihadists influencing British Muslims and admits that the issue will need to be examined with suggestions on how to remove or fight this unwanted dangerous influence.

There appears to be a greater emphasis on prevention and Sir Alan introduces the four p's - prepare, protect, pursue and prevent, which are the new watchwords on terrorism in the UK.