War on "Terrorism" vs. War on "Terror" -- the same?

This may come under the heading of "No... duh!" but is there any purposeful difference in meaning between the terms War on Terrorism and War on Terror? To my mind, there definitely is -- the former indicates warring on a method, which makes perfect sense and can be described in terms of how to secure a victory, while the latter seems to be about a principle which is extremely hard to define in concrete terms. What would be the criteria for the defeat of Terror?

(Or am I mishearing, and they're actually saying War on Terra, a war on the earth itself, something the Republicans and the corporate oligarchies have been conducting for some time?)

Is this an attempt by the PTB to manipulate our semantic environment and define "reality?" If so, it seems so nakedly transparent as to seem almost amateurish. Has anybody in the media ever called the administration on this?

Or am I reading too much into what could be merely American-style sloppy grammar?

Sorry if this has been brought up before, but it's been a source of irritation for me for some time, and I'd like to get some dialogue going about it.

Baack

[edit on 8/5/06 by Baack]