sj's Longest Now [v.1]

4. Recently, we have joined war with terrorists, indefinitely.  This particular war, unlike terrorism as a whole, has been going on for 20-30 years...

5. …and is most closely related to the previous World Wars:

Despite the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915 and continued German harassment of American shipping, the United States did not enter the First World War until two years later. Despite Nazi Germany’s repeated violations of the Versailles Treaty and its string of provocations throughout the mid-1930s, the Western democracies did not take action until 1939. The U.S. Government did not act against the growing threat from Imperial Japan until the threat became all too evident at Pearl Harbor. And, tragically, for all the language of war spoken before September 11th, this country simply was not on a war footing.

6. There is no “e” in “al-Qaida“, a term which may be retroactively applied to all Saudi and Afghani terrorist groups discussed by the Administration (“At the beginning of the Administration…“) in the two years immediately preceding 9/11.

We wanted to ensure there was no respite in the fight against al-Qaida…  It was the very first major national security policy directive of the Bush Administration -– … the elimination of al-Qaida.

7. When discussing people and groups that have taken the fall to save institutional face, take care to remain excessively polite.  “Mismanaged by” –> “chaired by”, “weakest link” –> “nerve center”, etc.

8. When discussing our fair Nation, capitalization is appropriate.  When assessing its future, a horizon of a few decades suffices for even the grandest visions.

Thank you for attending to this update.