ALL AL QAEDA, ALL THE TIME:

A Piazza Perspective on War and Bush (Mary McGrory, October 13, 2002, Washington Post)

War seemed unthinkable in the Piazza della Signoria in Florence, when I was there lately. There was too much going on, mostly happy stuff, and the variety and vivacity of the crowd might have diverted even George Bush and Dick Cheney from their absorption in missiles and rockets and cakewalks in Baghdad. Italians, who are with us on the war against terrorism, are two-thirds opposed to Bush's war against Iraq, even though Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is trying to give Britain's Tony Blair a run for his money as Bush's best friend in Europe.

But for his people, one war at a time is enough.

Have you ever noticed how none of these people who think that the war with Iraq will distract the government from the effort to round up al Qaeda are similarly concerned that things like running a Labor Department, an Environmental Protection Agency, or Head Start will have any effect? If catching Osama is so all-consuming then let's shut the whole government down until we have him. When the first Democrat calls for that we'll take the one war at a time argument seriously. Posted by Orrin Judd at October 15, 2002 11:13 AM