As always, we have to rid ourselves of old fashioned notions about prior wars in order to support the new one. This one will be fought in various stages: Secret diplomacy (the only effective kind), intelligence gathering (time-consuming, and it can seldom be covered by the press or ever disclosed), small-scale military actions (large scale actions simply don't apply).
We will not know if the public understands what is needed until a corner of the left wing media starts carping about "American death squads". If they are roundly ignored or even criticized, it will mean we are ready for the struggle.
The old criticism about death squads in third world countries threatened by Soviet domination were a successful propaganda ploy by the Soviets that our own left swallowed whole. The squirrel hunts that this current war will often require will be easily translatable into "death squad" propaganda, and we must be wise enough to reject that. Political assassination will also be a key to this struggle. If we destroy Saddam, and everyone carps about assassination, we will have failed to support our nation in part of what needs to be done.
The recent criticism on this thread of free-fire zones doesn't bode well. Let us hope we can all be more realistic after what was done in NY and Washington.
In other words, this 'war', like all others, will be a dirty, miserable, and, especially, shocking business. It will unfold, like all others, in ways that few expected. If we can resist the urge to turn away in revulsion (a difficult task) the world of terrorism can, indeed, be seriously damaged... |
