LONDON, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said use of the phrase "war on terror" since the September 11 attacks had been a mistake and may have caused "more harm than good," a British newspaper said on Thursday.

Writing in The Guardian, Miliband said the phrase "war on terror" gave the false sense of a unified global enemy, and encouraged a primarily military reply.

"Since 9/11, the notion of 'war on terror' defined the terrain. The phrase had some merit: it captured the gravity of the threats, the need for solidarity, and the need to respond urgently - where necessary, with force. But ultimately, the notion was misleading and mistaken," Miliband said.

He said the idea of a 'war on terror' gave the impression of a unified, transnational enemy, embodied in the figure of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida.

"The reality is that the motivations and identities of terrorist groups are disparate." Miliband said.

"The more we lump terrorist groups together and draw the battlelines as a simple binary struggle between moderates and extremists, or good and evil, the more we play into the hands of those seeking to unify groups with little in common." Miliband said, adding that terrorist groups "need to be tackled at root, interdicting flows of weapons and finance, exposing the shallowness of their claims, channeling their followers into democratic politics."

He also rejected the idea that combatting terrorism could only be done by military means.

"The 'war on terror' also implied that the correct response was primarily military. But as General Petraeus said to me and others in Iraq, the coalition there could not kill its way out of the problems of insurgency and civil strife.

"We must respond to terrorism by championing the rule of law, not subordinating it, for it is the cornerstone of the democratic society.

"We must uphold our commitments to human rights and civil liberties at home and abroad. That is surely the lesson of Guantanamo and it is why we welcome President-elect Obama's commitment to close it." Miliband said.
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