After they win...

[Christopher Rhoades Dÿkema]

I haven't found it so hard to raise questions about the wisdom of
Dubya's approach. Mostly, I phrase the issue in terms of how to achieve
safety and security, and refer to the indiscriminate targeting of the
bombs, despite the hype about precision bombing. By now there's been
enough reportage about civilians getting killed  I can usually move on
to some cautious caveats about the wisdom of focussing on ObL, inasmuch
as quite non-esoteric sources say his rôle in the attacks is uncertain.
I express suspicion that Dubya failed to demand him on the basis of the
indictments in the Southern District of New York for the african embassy
bombings, where there really was evidence against him. I ask, "What if
they catch Osama and the rest of his network remains?"

I do sedulously avoid the patriotic "we,"  and words like "America" to
describe the acts of the United States government in the rest of the
world. "Washington" is a better way to distance foreign activities from
anything ordinary people might feel responsible for.

Christopher Rhoades Dÿkema