If this is war; it is above all war economy. War economy is command economy. Mobilization of the economy for war against terrorism will not be left to an invisible hand.
The immediate response has been the injection of liquidity into financial markets. The next step appears to be the emergency authorization of whatever level of federal spending on security and defense infrastructure is needed to offset the decline in consumer spending. Presumably, a third step will soon become necessary to prevent strategic supply bottlenecks and price gouging as consumption patterns jolt from consumer baubles to security staples.
In all likelyhood, NMD will survive symbolically, but only symbolically. The real mobilization will have to be the labour intensive mobilization of a population. Spin doctors and high-tech toys are effective only in the de-mobilization of a population.
If the U.S. government thinks an anti-terrorism war can be put on cruise-control, it is cruising for a bruising. In case anyone missed the point, high technology is too vulnerable and those who rely excessively on high-tech are made as vulnerable. This is even before factoring in the commercial and intellectual property parasitism of planned obsolesence, over-booking etc. Figuratively speaking, the terrorists simultaneously hacked several high-technology reliant systems: air transport, financial transactions and structural engineering. One must assume that as the U.S. declares war on terrorism, the enemy will not simply evaporate but will seek to identify and incapacitate other vulnerable systems.
It is hard for me to imagine being "for" or "against" what seems to be eerily inevitable. Is one for or against a volcano or an iceberg? There will be a military response. The sovereignty of the U.S. has unquestionably been violated. I cannot help but think, though, that militarily responding to the events of September 11 will require a level of concrete and frankly collectivist thinking that is totally at odds with the abstract laissez faire solipsism of the past two decades. Video game surgical strikes won't cut it. Trying to have all the guns and all the butter too won't cut it.
Tom Walker Bowen Island, BC 604 947 2213