http://www.juancole.com/2004_01_01_juancole_archive.html#107320315849345537
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As for SecDef Rumsfeld's leaked memo last Fall, his complaint that we
lack measurements of success in the "war against terrorism" shows how
little he understands that "war." For starters, it is *not* a war, no
more than LBJ's War on Poverty was a war. Using that emotive label
clouds the reality of the struggle. The reality is that, unlike wars
or football games, there will be no victory, no clock running down, no
final score in this struggle against terror -- and therefore no
measurements of success in reaching victory.
We should have goals - the collection of intelligence, the penetration
of terrorist cells, the capture of leaders, the confiscation of funds,
the protection of our citizens - but not measurements and not scores
and not the pursuit of victory. This struggle is a process to be
prosecuted with intelligence and vigor and to be endured with
patience, but it is not a game to be won or lost by a date certain
[read "Election Day, 2004]. Even as we continue to maintain
intelligence agencies and armed forces in peacetime, so will we have
to maintain our counterterror apparatus indefinitely -- smaller,
maybe, as time passes but active and well oiled.
The famous leaked memo is one more indicator that we have given the
leadership in countering terror to the wrong department, the one we
used to call accurately the " War Department." Countering terror is
not a war; it is in Gen Barry McCaffrey's words a threat to be
managed, and it should be managed under the leadership of our
intelligence agencies.