1346

Several blogs note that the same number of days have gone by between 9/11 and today as went by between Pearl Harbor and the VJ Day. One thousand three hundred forty six days.

So. What will victory be like, when it comes? Who will surrender? And when will the surrender come?

Dick Cheney said that he expected the War on Terror to last "fifty years or more." His associate, the President, never the one for thinking before speaking, said on the other hand, quite some time ago, that our mission had been accomplished. Possibly carried away by the thrill of playing dress-up on the deck of an aircraft carrier in the presence of a large crowd while the band played hail to the chief, he forgot the important Vice-Presidential talking point that we should be prepared for a half century of war. The Republican revolution of lowered expectations.

Fifty years is a long time. I will be dead and my daughter will be old. I think I know what kind of America Mr. Cheney envisions, during this half century. I think it is the same America Senator Frist and Justice Scalia and Congressman Tom DeLay envision and are preparing for, a permanently Republican America. Permanent war. Permanent fear. A permanently Faith-based America. Permanent GOP Big Brothership keeping you safe.

In other words, they think they have hit upon the recipe for perpetual rule. And the essential ingredient: a war that by its very nature can never be won, a "war against an abstract noun" as Michael Moore described it.

The War on Drugs might be considered a test-drive.