It was George W Bush who first used the phrase "war on terror", after the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001. It was also used by Tony Blair.
In 2005, launching an anti-terror plan a month after the 7/7 London bombings, the then prime minister said: "Let no one be in any doubt that the rules of the game are changing."
Now, in a dramatic late-night statement inside 10 Downing Street after the Manchester bomb attack, Theresa May has both declared war on terror and changed the rules of the game.
:: LIVE: The latest updates on the Manchester attack from the Sky News team
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Putting armed troops on the streets and deploying them at major events like this Saturday's FA Cup Final is a declaration of war against terrorists who want to kill and maim sports fans or concert goers.
And raising the threat level from "severe" to "critical" - meaning the threat of another terrorist attack is seen as imminent - means the Prime Minister has spectacularly changed the rules.
Only 24 hours earlier, after an embarrassing General Election U-turn on social care, the Prime Minister was being denounced as "weak and unstable" by opponents who were ridiculing her "strong and stable" boast.
Yet after a frenetic day which saw her chair two Cobra meetings, meet police chiefs and visit injured children in hospital in Manchester, the Prime Minister could not have acted more decisively or swiftly.
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