All the fuss over GWOT and GSAVE (and now back, apparently to GWOT) obscures the larger point that the Pentagon, as Ivo says, has it right. Although military action has its place in fighting terrorm, it is a relatively small place. We have accomplished much more in terms of actually identifying, apprehending, and prosecuting terrorists and stopping planned attacks through close collaboration through global networks of government officials (intelligence agencies, financial regulators, justice officials, counter-terrorism officials) -- the kind of intense collaboration that allowed the British quickly to identify the bombers in the first bombing and arrest those involved in the second. Working through these networks is much less glamorous than riding off to war, but it's the natural and obvious response to a threat that the Pentagon itself now says operates through "a global web of enemy networks." You can't fight these networks alone, and you can't fight them with soldiers. We need a whole range of government agencies involved, working closely with their counterparts around the world.

But that's a messy, complex solution to a messy, complex problem. Much easier just to keep saying "we are at war." And where are the Democrats? Can't we come up with a better acronym and a real strategy? Response from my fellow bloggers and all readers welcome.