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--> --> The many facets of this new American war By Roger Simon WASHINGTON - Not forever, it is to be hoped, but at least for now, we live in an America that has something to fear other than fear itself. "We have to believe there will be another attempt by a terrorist group to hit us again," says Sen. Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, ranking Republican on the Senate intelligence committee. "You can just about bet on it. That's just something you have to believe will happen." Attorney General John Ashcroft warns that there is a "likelihood of additional terrorist activity," and that the "risks go up" as the United States responds with military action. "We think that there is a very serious threat of additional problems now," he says. And one intelligence official goes so far as to put the chance of further terrorist attacks on the United States at "100 percent." In the face of this, our president urges us to live normal lives, yet the vice president must leave his home and office, and be stockpiled in a secret location because it is too dangerous to have him and the president in proximity. "This is a time of war," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer explains. But it is also payback time, and we are now an America of grim resolve, an America that is saying, yes, suicidal terrorists can attack us, but there are not enough madmen in the world to defeat us. "Now I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country," Gen. George Patton told his troops just before D-Day. "He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country." Today, right now, America is making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country. Though the pictures from Kabul are grainy, black and white and snow-filled and resemble nothing more than TV in the '50s, somewhere out there in the flashes of light airports, training camps and command centers are being blown up and people are dying. At home, reluctantly, but inevitably, we are becoming Fortress America: The Coast Guard is conducting the largest operation to protect American ports since World War II, cruise ships are barred from New York Harbor, the Environmental Protection Agency is stepping up protection of the nation's water supply, stockpiles of smallpox and anthrax vaccines are being guarded, members of Congress are being urged not to wear their lapel pins outside the Capitol grounds, pedestrians and bicyclists cannot cross the Golden Gate Bridge at night and you have to pass through a metal detector to get to the Liberty Bell. And yet this is a war with almost universal support at home. A president who got fewer popular votes than his opponent and who took office, therefore, without a mandate now unifies a nation. A man parodied for speaking English as if it were a second language - "Strategery!" - now tells his citizens with a newfound confidence that he has launched an attack that will be "sustained, comprehensive and relentless." And a nation that once demanded "clearly defined goals" and "exit strategies" for any post-Vietnam military engagements now accepts the statements by the secretary of defense that this war "will likely be sustained for a period of years, not weeks or months" and that our goal is to fight "worldwide terrorism." It is also a war in which the modern art of stagecraft, spin and publicity have become universal. A war in which Osama bin Laden times his videotaped reply to the attack on Afghanistan to deny President Bush a monopoly on that day's news broadcasts. "I'm a little disturbed," one U.S. official notes, "that his press people may be as good as ours." Roger Simon is a syndicated columnist for the Baltimore Sun. Email your... Technical questions & comments to: WebMaster Daily Tidings editorial comments & questions to: Editor Visit our other Oregon Newspapers... | Albany Democrat-Herald | Ashland Daily Tidings | Corvallis Gazette-Times | | Lebanon Express | Newport News-Times | Springfield News | Cottage Grove Sentinel | Ashland Daily Tidings 1661 Siskiyou Blvd. Ashland, OR 97520 Telephone 541-482-3456 © Copyright 2001 Lee Northwest Publishing