Wars

It occurred to me while reading this post by Digby that we call the fake war, the one with no attacks on American soil since after it was declared, the one with no battlefields and no uniforms and no Geneva Conventions, "war on terror", but we call the real war, the one where American soldiers are dying every day, "war in Iraq".

The war on terror has enemies but no location, the war in Iraq has location but no enemies. The location of the war on terror is everywhere and nowhere. The enemies in the war in Iraq are everyone and no one.

Because the location of the war on terror is everywhere, the president's war powers are now domestic. The terrorists have already won. Every step the president takes to protect our security at the expense of our essential freedoms is a victory for the terrorists. They didn't just want to kill people; they wanted to destroy our way of life. Sadly, the war on terror is nowhere; we don't have victories in the war on terror, just missile strikes in nameless villages on nameless terrorists, killing nameless people. Five more appear for every one that dies. There is no place to win the war on terror. It will never end.

Because the enemies in Iraq are everyone, trust is impossible, and victory is impossible. Anyone can blow you up. Almost everyone has a reason to. Because the enemies in Iraq are no one, defeating them is impossible, and victory is impossible.

Lest we forget, Bush has repeatedly conflated the war on terror and the war in Iraq. He wants to shore up the deficiencies in each war by giving the Iraq War a face and the war on terror a country. Never mind that this construction has been ridiculous since the first days after 9/11, when Bush was convinced that Saddam was behind the attack.

It's become increasingly clear in recent weeks that the war on terror's face and location are American, at least to the American President. What is he doing? What is he thinking?