Getting back on course in the Terror War

I don't know about you, but I have had a nagging feeling for some time now that the Bush administration is acting as if it is lost in a fog on what to do next in fighting the Terror War.

Today I found an editorial in the Asia Times that brings my unease into focus. Titled, "Give War a Chance," it was written Feb. 1 in response to President Bush's State of the Union address. Here are some key parts.

One may also agree - though few nations even among America's allies now do - that it is necessary to extend the anti-terrorism campaign to "rogue" states in possession of weapons of mass destruction and with the possible present or future intent of passing such weapons to terrorist groups.

But it is far from clear what sort of course Bush is charting when he speaks of having "a great opportunity during this time of war to lead the world toward the values that will bring lasting peace", or of taking "the side of brave men and women who advocate these values around the world, including the Islamic world ..." Is the war on terror, already pretty open-ended and - perhaps of necessity - without a precise exit strategy, to be converted into a "war of liberation"? Is Bush declaring Leon Trotsky-style "permanent revolution" in which wars afford the opportunity of speeding up the liberation process? On Tuesday, did we witness the birth of George W Bush the revolutionary?

Well, tell us it is so, George! Tell us that the US henceforward will shun alliances with rotten regimes if somehow that suits the national interest. Tell us that the very definition of the American national interest and purpose forecloses making rotten compromises not just with Iraq, Iran or North Korea, but also with the likes of Abdullah's Saudi Arabia or Karimov's Uzbekistan. Yes, George, in that sense, give war a chance.

The problem is that the administration does not seem to be giving the Ammerican people regular status reports on the progress of the war. We have instead received assurances that more terrorist atacks are "inevitable," which is hardly heartens one that significant progress has been made.

So it would be nice for the administration to explain how much damage have we done to terrorist organizations and networks. I don't mean just giving us a body count, but how much have we decreased their ability to war against us? What is the broad outline of our national objectives for the next year? Five years?

We need to be clued in better.