[b]States that a few weeks ago harbored terrorist killers now cry that the operational name of our planned response "Infinite Justice" is offensive to Muslim ears, and it is abruptly changed — even though the name reflected perfectly our American creed to accept responsibility, in the here and now, to right wrong to the bitter end. Our spokesman at the Department of State was asked inanely whether the Taliban were involved in the recent destruction of our abandoned embassy in Kabul — as if we, who have lost 7,000 in our streets, should care much about an empty shell of a building or the motives of our enemies who torch it. The hesitant supreme NATO commander in Europe asks for greater proof of bin Laden's guilt, as if we, the offspring of Normandy and Okinawa, are to be reduced to mere barristers parrying at the Hague.
The voice of pained experts on the screen saturate us with so many worries: germs, small nuclear bombs, nerve gas, crop dusters, and hazardous waste from biological dumps, all of which may obliterate us in our sleep. Apparently, not a pundit is to be found who will recall a beleaguered Churchill's acceptance of the nature of the new war with his Nazi foe — "the latest refinements of science are linked with the cruelties of the Stone Age."
Military experts advise us that Afghanistan is both landlocked and mountainous. Are not caves there impenetrable? Will it not be soon snowing? Worse still, our foes are not traditional enemies and so immune from the laws of war of the ages! Do any of us shrug back, "No one can guarantee success in war, but only deserve it"? Other sirens beckon in the false melodies of Iranian, Syrian, or Sudanese friendship. Few leaders step forth to cut it off with, "We will have no truce or parley with you, or the grisly gang who do your wicked will. You do your worst — and we will do our best."
Rallies on our campuses, in our churches, and on our streets are calling for American restraint — seeking doubt within ourselves, and so with it perhaps escape from further ruin. The vocabulary of courage, victory, and triumph is not in our lexicon, but indeed is said to be more likely proof of brute savagery and ignorance. We have forgotten: "You ask, what is our policy? I will say: it is to wage war, by sea, land and air, and with all our might. . . . You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: victory. . . . Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival!
"Without mass funerals to remind us of our dead, three weeks later, some now worry whether our initial ultimatums were too obdurate. Perhaps the biological arsenal of Iraq has been put away? Or might not be used? Or was but a figment of our imagination? Or is none of our business? They forget that such momentary doubts are inevitable and human, but must be countered always by, "Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never — in nothing, great or small, large or petty — never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense."[/b]