Winning the War
 
    The roots of the war are planted so deeply that few, even experts, can define them.  It can be traced vaguely to the Middle East, where it has raged during much of the region's history, but by the time it was noticed outside that area the enemy had already become embedded throughout the world.  It was a war we did not want, for years a one-sided war in which the attackers went unrepelled while the victims remained unable or unwilling to identify the cause, much less to mount an effective defense.  For a long time, the only response was to care as best we could for the survivors; the maimed became a familiar sight yet the enemy was addressed only case-by-case.  Some went so far as to blame the victims for their own condition.
 
    The escalation of the war occurred first in Europe, but when some three thousand died in North America, it finally became clear, at least to some, that pre-emptive measures were not only justified but necessary, and at last the undeclared war being fought against us was responded to in kind.
 
    Many measures were tried, but after partial success had been won, it seemed as though little further progress was likely or, a growing number of naysayers asserted, even possible.  Yet as the casualties continued to mount, there were a few who stood up to pressure from those who felt the cost was too high or the cause too futile and instead proposed a redoubled effort to overcome the ancient enemy.  An enervated public pressured reluctant officials to continue and even increase support for the courageous but risky proposal, and in time all but the most bitter opponents quietly admitted the effort was working, the attacks had been sharply reduced and the enemy contained.
 
    Yet the war goes on.  Though attacks within the United States have been virtually eliminated since war was declared, the enemy continues to function elsewhere, where at times the battle rages, claiming innocent victims every year.  In Afghanistan, Pakistan and a few other countries the enemy still operates openly and attacks regularly, but even in those countries where the fighting has been suppressed, the defense effort continues, for unlike political wars which have clearly defined endings, the war against polio continues.
 
    Were you thinking of some other war?  The war against cancer, perhaps, or against ignorance, or perhaps even the War on Terror?  All those and more fall into the category of ongoing -- and necessary -- efforts, wars against threats to all mankind and yet wars which cannot, in the conventional sense, be "won."  There will be no Appomattox Courthouse surrender forthcoming from a virus, no "11th Hour, Day and Month" armistice signed and honored by poverty, and no ultimate capitulation will be won from or against terrorism.  These wars, while historic, cannot be reduced to a few easily memorized beginning and ending dates.
 
This sort of war is not an event, but a commitment.
 
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Gary Fisher