A DAY AT A TIME: HOW WARS ARE WON
October 29, 2001 -- Can you believe it? It's been three whole
weeks, and America still hasn't won its war on terrorism.
The enemy must be tougher than first thought, no?
Puh-leeze.
From the outset, the only sure thing about this war was that
Americans would very soon be asked to doubt their leaders - and
themselves.
Now the news is full of stories speaking of how long and tough
the war will be - as if anybody who knew anything ever expected
it to be different.
Wasn't anyone paying attention when President Bush said last
month that this would be a "long struggle" and asked the nation
to summon its collective resolve?
"This war will not be like the war against Iraq a decade ago,
with a decisive liberation of territory and a swift
conclusion," he said in his speech before Congress. "It will
not look like the air war above Kosovo two years ago, where no
ground troops were used and not a single American was lost in
combat."
What kind of war will it be? Bush was honest about that, too:
"The course of this conflict is not known," he said.
How could it be?
This is a unique war; the enemy, to put it mildly, is hard to
pin down.
The targets of the moment - Afghanistan's Taliban - is battle-
hardened and zealous.
The larger foe - Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda and Islamic
fundamentalism in general - girdles the globe; it will not
easily be defeated.
And certainly, as Bush has noted, this war won't be won with
token gestures.
Tokenism was Bill Clinton's strategy.
Every strike by the terrorists was met with a half-hearted
response: The World Trade Center bombing in '93. The murder of
U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia in '95 and '96. The attack on U.S.
embassies in Africa in '98. The bombing of a U.S. Navy
destroyer last year.
What was Clinton's answer to all that?
An investigation here.
A few cruise missiles there.
Then back to business as usual.
Osama, and al Qaeda, got the message: An attack on America was
risk-free.
Bush, thankfully, has promised to pursue a different course.
"Our response involves far more than instant retaliation and
isolated strikes," Bush said. "Americans should not expect one
battle, but a lengthy campaign, unlike any other we have ever
seen."
In form, perhaps. But not in substance. America has been there
before.
The road from Pearl Harbor to Toyko Bay was arduous. It began
at Midway, then to the Solomon Islands and the Central Pacific
and up the Philippine archipelago to Okinawa and on to victory.
In Europe, the American humiliation at Kasserine Pass in North
Africa was shrugged off and the painful process of defeating
the Third Reich begun: Sicily; Italy; Normandy - eventually,
Berlin.
Then came the Cold War - another unique conflict, with hot
spots and near catastrophe.
Vietnam - a battle lost in a larger conflict that ended in the
dismantling of the Berlin Wall - stands as a textbook example
in how not to wage war in an electronic age.
America's leaders need never to promise more than they can
deliver. And America itself needs fully to comprehend that
victory in this war is going to cost dearly in blood and
treasure - here in America, and overseas too.
Not to be too blunt about it, but Americans who are appalled by
the results of errant U.S. bombs falling on a Red Cross
warehouse in Afghanistan need to take a deep breath and recall
the fireballs of Sept. 11.
"They say war is all glory, boys," said Gen. William Tecumseh
Sherman, "but it is not. It is all hell."
The trick is visiting more hell on them, over time, than they
visit on us.
So never mind the Northern Alliance's slow pace in capturing
the Taliban-held city of Mazar-e-Sharif.
And never mind the Taliban's execution of one of the opposition
leaders, Abdul Haq?
"Tenacious Taliban Cling to Power," a headline on Friday read.
Again, it's been three whole weeks since the bombs began to
fall.
Meanwhile, on the home front, morale is even shakier, with
daily anthrax-grams fueling national fear.
In truth, the response by officials has been disappointing.
They've delivered misinformation and conflicting messages and
vague but alarming warnings that only make matters worse.
Inspiring confidence has not been their strong suit, to say the
least.
But, then again, how reasonable would it be to expect
otherwise?
America has never confronted this kind of attack before. Not
knowing what to expect next, officials are trying to guard
against everything - which, to apply an old adage, will leave
America guarded against nothing.
Still, the essential game plan makes sense. The top priority:
elimination of global terrorism.
Indeed, the terrorists need to be subjected to the same kind of
fear to which they've subjected Americans - multiplied by 100.
America needs to be ruthless.
Not because it wants to be.
But because it must be.
The sooner the enemy feels the full extent of America's
righteous wrath, the sooner the enemy will succumb.
But, again, the comprehensive victory the world requires cannot
be expected to come quickly.
On Friday, Bush repeated his call for forbearance.
"The American people are going to have to be patient . . . " he
said. "They're going to have to be determined . . . And with
that patience and with that determination, we will eventually
smoke [the terrorists] out of their holes and get them and
bring them to justice."
Bush noted the danger of letting fear paralyze the nation.
"Franklin Roosevelt warned us 70 years ago that fear feeds on
itself and contributes to the very problems that first gave it
rise," he said.
"America has prevailed over fear in a Great Depression and in a
global war, and we will do so again."
Indeed, courage and resolve are the keys to victory in this
war.
Hang in there, America.
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