Chewin in the Chung

Read Kent's post entitled We just lost the war on terror, and his subsequent update.

I still disagree that there is a War on terror. Wars can be won. What are the conditions for victory in the War on Terror? I never liked the War on Drugs for the same reason- how could you ever say that the war was won (or lost)? Is the English language so poor that we can?t find some accurate way to describe these conflicts?

I don't think that this is some nefarious right-wing plan to brainwash the poor American electorate into supporting something they might otherwise hesitate on. It's just slipshod use of the language. Back in the early 70?s, Nixon declared a 'War on Cancer'. This was when we were technically not at 'war' in Vietnam. Did we win the war on cancer, lose the war on cancer, or is cancer not really the kind of thing you can go to war with?

Back to Kent's post. I am ashamed to admit that I had no idea what the Battle of Tarawa was. Googled it and found this. My God. The generation of my grandparents was made of much sterner stuff.