IS SHE REALLY THIS DENSE OR IS SHE A METAPHOR FOR FRUITCAKE:

Real Battles and Empty Metaphors (SUSAN SONTAG, September 10, 2002, NY Times)

When a president of the United States declares war on cancer or poverty or drugs, we know that "war" is a metaphor. Does anyone think that this war--the war that America has declared on terrorism--is a metaphor? But it is, and one with powerful consequences. War has been disclosed, not actually declared, since the threat is deemed to be self-evident.

Real wars are not metaphors. And real wars have a beginning and an end. Even the horrendous, intractable conflict between Israel and Palestine will end one day. But this antiterror war can never end. That is one sign that it is not a war but, rather, a mandate for expanding the use of American power.

This is a column of almost magnificent stupidity. Ms Sontag shows herself to be nearly oblivious to everything from history to vocabulary as she argues that radical Islam is a permanent feature of humankind against which we will have to act forever, and that those actions are not in the nature of war. One would merely point out to Ms Sontag that in the space of a couple hundred years America has already defeated such previously thought to be enduring "-isms" as colonialism (Revolution), slavery (Civil War), barbarism (Indian Wars), Kaiserism (WWI), Fascism (WWII), Communism (Cold War), and there must be a few more. Sure, even to this day pockets of resistance remain, like Japanese soldiers left behind on Pacific islands, some isolated places haven't yet gotten the message that the war is over and they've lost, but does anyone rational still consider the Cold War to be ongoing just because Cuba, North Korea, and China remain?
Posted by Orrin Judd at September 10, 2002 1:17 PM