This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Thursday, July 11th, 2019. I'm Caleb Brown.

The United States should know when it's at war. A popular talking point today is to suggest

that we're not engaged in endless war exactly, as if the longest war in

American history with no end in sight is practically different from an endless war.

And never mind that even the White House agrees the U.S. is currently fighting in multiple countries.

Cato's Gene Healy offers his assessment on those who would define war down.

This is a weird situation because there are so many people who seem to continue to insist that the United States is at peace that it is that we are engaged in peace time.

Yeah, recently it's a it's almost as though a debate is going to break out about ending America's endless wars.

It's a phrase that's cropped up recently in Washington from both the left and the right.

Some of the Democratic candidates,

Bernie Sanders wrote an essay in foreign affairs recently

ending America's endless wars.

And there's the announcement of the new think tank in town,

the Quincy Institute, which is also devoted to ending endless wars and this is

prompted a reaction from the

basically supporters of the what's been going on for nearly 18 years of the status quo of near constant military operations

and their response from the administration and administration supporters has been basically what I call

alternatively euphemism,

euphemism, redefinition of war, or just outright denial.

You know, we're having a debate about whether

the adjective endless and the noun war are appropriate.

In terms of euphemism, there's Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last week he gave an interview where he said, you know, well actually he used the word war and then he caught himself.

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