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Bruce Ackerman [View as PDF]
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113 Yale L.J. 1871 (2004)
I know that some people question if America is really in a war at all. They view terrorism more as a crime, a problem to be solved mainly with law enforcement and indictments. After the World Trade Center was first attacked in 1993, some of the guilty were indicted and tried and convicted and sent to prison. But the matter was not settled. The terrorists were still training and plotting in other nations and drawing up more ambitious plans. After the chaos and carnage of September the 11th, it is not enough to serve our enemies with legal papers. The terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States, and war is what they got. [Applause.]
-- President George W. Bush, State of the Union, January 20, 2004
The Cold War. The War on Poverty. The War on Crime. The War on Drugs. The War on Terrorism. Apparently, it isn't enough to call a high-priority initiative a High-Priority Initiative. If it's really important, only a wimp refuses to call it war, almost without regard to its relationship to the real thing.
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