I will confess that I had misgivings in late 1990/early 1991 about military action to drive the Iraqis out of Kuwait. Like a lot of other people (Colin Powell comes to mind), I was concerned that there would be a large loss of American lives, and a protracted and complicated war in the Middle East for which we had no exit strategy, and for that reason I wanted to give the sanctions more time to work before we went in shooting. As it happened, the war went better for our side than ANYONE expected it to, regardless of which side of the debate they were on prior to the commencement of the air war.

However, one part of my prediction was accurate; we didn't have a good exit strategy. We essentially decided to stop the ground war at the 100-hour mark, for fairly arbitrary reasons, and without doing what was necessary to provide for a more stable situation there in the future. And we were unwilling to revisit our assumptions post-hostilities, instead choosing to keep up a fairly ineffective low-intensity conflict against Iraq through continued diplomatic and economic sanctions, and occasional aerial bombardment of military installations. Ten years later, it's hard to look back and call our actions in Iraq an unqualified success.

As regards the present war, I think people have to pay attention to what President Bush and other military leaders are saying when they remind us that this war is far from over, and the hardest part is yet to come. Remember, this is not a war against Afghanistan, or solely against the Taliban or al Qaeda; it is a war against terrorism, as difficult as it is to define that concept with precision.

I am fully in favor of what we are doing in Afghanistan and elsewhere (in saying this I also admit to being pleasantly surprised with the performance of President Bush -- a man I did not vote for, and of whom I generally had a pretty low opinion before 9/11). I think we're doing what needs to be done, and so far doing it well. But let's not make the mistake of saying we're finished; we have a long way to go with this, and there will undoubtedly be some more surprises along the way.