I think, in order to win a "war against terrorism," we would have to eliminate terrorism forever. So we may win battles, but will surely lose the "war." That is considerably more than a semantical quibble. Whoever thought up the expression, "war against terrorism," unnecessarily set the U.S.A. up for an uneccessary defeat, by promissing the impossible.

From what I understand, General Powell is now in charge and is intent on behaving reasonably. If so, Bush deserves credit for letting cooler heads prevail. But his rhetoric is nonetheless foolish and self-defeating.