When a country declares war, this tends to "justify" all sorts of restrictions the govenment places on its citizens, often supported by the citizens themselves if whipped into a patriotic frenzy. Not a good situation.

(One "minor" side-issue of this is the proportioning of news coverage--not necessarily the fault of the government, more the fault of the news media--drawing attention away from various issues previously considered important, and focussing it solely on "the war;" for only one example, what have you heard lately in the news about recent congressional actions on such things as oil drilling in wildlife reserves?)

There is a qualitative difference between a war and a police action. I have maintained from the very beginning that declaring war is not appropriate in this situation. Announcing a police action is. Terrorism is not an act of war, not even when the terrorists say it is. Terrorism is a criminal act, it should be regarded as such, and it should be treated as such. Calling it a "war" gives terrorism a peculiar kind of dignity that it doesn't deserve.

Don Firth