At war - Defining Victory.(the necessary words have been said, following the World Trade Center disaster; now action is needed)

Everything that can be done through words in this war has now been done. President Bush said everything that needed to be said in his speech to Congress. He honored our victims and our heroes-some of them, as we have learned, the same people. He expressed gratitude to our friends and presented an ultimatum to our foes. He made it clear that we were at war, not in court; that we seek victory over an enemy, not just punishment for a criminal. He explained who the enemy was not. America is not at war with Muslims who practice their religion in peace. While not defining the enemy too broadly, he took care not to define him too narrowly either: Osama bin Laden got one mention in Bush's speech, almost in passing. Our enemy is "every terrorist group of global reach." Which is to say, anti-American terrorists.

The logic of a "war on terrorism" points beyond itself. Terrorism is, after all, a (particularly immoral) tactic of war, not an ideology or group or goal. A war on terrorism, literally speaking, would be like a war on bombing. The phrase is meant to suggest that our hostility is not confined to those people who can be proved to have materially aided the attacks of September 11. It encompasses all those who mean to do our people harm. Not just bin Laden, then, but his al Qaeda network; not just his network, but the states that abet it and other networks.

Small wonder, then, that President Bush warned us that this war would be long. Bombing bin Laden, if we find him, will not end it. Nor will overthrowing the Taliban. Victory requires either changing the regimes of Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, and Sudan, or frightening them enough to change their behavior toward us.

If this long-term project is to have any chance of success, however, the administration must pursue what it has called the "first phase" of the war-against bin Laden and his Taliban ...