Win The War

This is the 52nd presidential election.The 40th came in the last year of World War II. President Roosevelt agreed to a fourth nomination, saying it was his wartime duty. ''Dr. New Deal'' had become ''Dr. Win the War.'' Republicans nominated the 42-year-old governor of New York, Thomas E. Dewey.Dewey and his party endorsed much New Deal legislation and the total-victory war policy. Dewey campaigned on the theme that after 12 tough years the Democratic leadership was ''tired'' and ''old.'' This played to the subterranean issue: There were whispers that FDR might not live out another term.

Things are looking up for the female sex. We are earning almost 60 percent of bachelor's degrees, and our numbers are skyrocketing in law, medical and business schools. After graduation, we go on to hold more than half of all managerial and professional jobs. We still earn only 78 percent of what our male co-workers earn - a number than has been stubbornly unchanged for 30 years - but we bring home 42 percent of the bacon in the family, compared to 6 percent or less 40 years ago. Sex selection clinics report that parents overwhelming ask to become pregnant with girls, and half of those girls will grow up to play sports, compared to only one in 27 before Title IX. Three-quarters of the jobs lost in the recession were held by men. Women now make up the majority of the workforce.

So far, more Americans have been killed this year as victims of homicide on the streets of Baltimore than have died in action in the Persian Gulf. Statistically at least, the life expectancy of U.S. troops on the front lines in Saudi Arabia significantly exceeds that of their counterparts in Baltimore's poorest neighborhoods.Such comparisons are shocking, of course. But they also point to one of the most uncomfortable realities of this war: the dichotomy between the nation's ambitious foreign policy and its appalling neglect of pressing domestic needs.

Is there any way to look at the war in Afghanistan as anything but a mounting failure? I don't think so. The "metrics," as former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld would say, aren't looking good. This week, as the ninth anniversary of the start of the Afghanistan war was observed, we learned that the death of each Taliban fighter we battle costs at least $50 million. That's a conservative estimate. It could actually be $100 million. This figure came not from the Pentagon, which goes to great lengths to conceal such accounting, but from an enterprising reporter named Matthew Nasuti, who works for Afghanistan Press.

IF THINGS GO according to plan, President Bush will symbolically sign into law today a bill calling for construction of a $160 million monument on The Mall in Washington to Americans who took part in World War II. It has been 56 years since the end of those hostilities, and still there is no monument. A memorial on The Mall honors Korean War veterans, and two commemorate the men and women who served in the Vietnam War. But for 16.4 million American participants of the 20th century's central conflict, no monumental tribute exists.

REUNIONS are scheduled all over the world next month for those who participated in D-Day and lesser known World War II events (such as the Battle of Saipan 50 years ago June 14). But so far as Glimpses knows, there are no reunions planned by those who weren't in uniform but helped win the war without leaving Baltimore.One unique group comprises those volunteers who stared at the sky during the war. These are the men and women who served in the "spotting towers" all over the city. Their job was to sight enemy planes and put out the words -- "Baltimore Red!"

CHICAGO -- Seventy old soldiers, most of whom already sport chests full of medals, have added a new one commemorating their part in World War I on the 75th anniversary of the end of the war.Under a tent on a parade field at Cantigny Park in Wheaton, Ill., Veterans Affairs Secretary Jesse Brown yesterday led a contingent of high-ranking admirals and generals in pinning the medals on the elderly veterans.In the sweltering late-summer heat, a Navy band played a muted version of "Over There," the war's signature song, as many in the crowd of 800 were moved to tears.

WASHINGTON -- Whether it's at your own kitchen table or Uncle Sam's, it's a good bet that peace and harmony will go out the window when the bills come in. Now that President Bush has produced the hard numbers of his budget for the next fiscal year, the mild Democratic responses that met his cheerleading State of the Union commitments to win the war on terrorism and keep the home fires burning have already been drowned out by irate partisan complaints about...

WE MUST WIN the war in Iraq or face dire consequences. News from Baghdad the past few days suggests the insurgents have the upper hand. While the insurgency may be more effective in some areas than others, it's self-evident the insurgents have the momentum in critical regions where they can bomb, assassinate and intimidate without effective interference. Collapse of the insurgency seems unlikely, at least in the near term. Whether or not the Jan. 30 elections in Iraq are postponed, it's not clear how long it will take for the initiative to shift in our favor.

Many Americans may have felt betrayed after learning that U.S. Army officials in Iraq paid editors and TV producers to publish stories friendly to the United States, some without attributing the source. My only question was, did planting those stories help turn Iraqi hearts and minds to U.S. favor? The work was done by the Lincoln Group under contract to the Army. Critics claim this is propaganda operations run amok and pressured officials in Washington and Baghdad to investigate the practice.

Many Americans may have felt betrayed after learning that U.S. Army officials in Iraq paid editors and TV producers to publish stories friendly to the United States, some without attributing the source. My only question was, did planting those stories help turn Iraqi hearts and minds to U.S. favor? The work was done by the Lincoln Group under contract to the Army. Critics claim this is propaganda operations run amok and pressured officials in Washington and Baghdad to investigate the practice.

What President Bush, Congress and the American people must focus on now when it comes to Iraq is what the United States will do after the Dec. 15 Iraqi election. Assuming a decent level of minority Sunni Arab participation, the election might open a last, narrow window for achieving a relatively secure, stable and democratic Iraq. Mr. Bush tried to start us down this road with his speech Wednesday at the U.S. Naval Academy detailing U.S. efforts to train Iraqi security forces that was accompanied by the release of a document, "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq."

CHICAGO -- Should we stay in Iraq? That is a question Americans are asking themselves, and increasingly the division is not between "yes" and "no" but between "no" and "you've got to be kidding." A recent CBS News poll found that 50 percent of Americans think we should leave "as soon as possible," with only 43 percent saying we should stay the course. Republicans, of course, refuse to consider the possibility that their president has made a hopeless mess of the war. And while many Democrats say it was a mistake to go into Iraq, very few have the nerve to say it's also a mistake to stay.

WE MUST WIN the war in Iraq or face dire consequences. News from Baghdad the past few days suggests the insurgents have the upper hand. While the insurgency may be more effective in some areas than others, it's self-evident the insurgents have the momentum in critical regions where they can bomb, assassinate and intimidate without effective interference. Collapse of the insurgency seems unlikely, at least in the near term. Whether or not the Jan. 30 elections in Iraq are postponed, it's not clear how long it will take for the initiative to shift in our favor.

ATLANTA - Just suspend disbelief for a little while. If you can do that - forget those annoying facts, ignore the complexities of world affairs and disregard chaos theory - you can believe that President Bush will win the war on terror. You can believe. But it requires some selective amnesia. You have to forget that Osama bin Laden - "We'll smoke him out of his cave," Mr. Bush declared three years ago - is still at large and planning murderous attacks. You have to ignore the aggressive insurgency in Iraq, ordinary Iraqis' resentment of the U.S. occupation and the failure to turn up weapons of mass destruction or evidence of a significant relationship between Saddam Hussein and bin Laden.

NEW YORK -- President Bush tried yesterday to protect his image as a resolute leader, reassuring Americans that the United States and its allies can win the war on terrorism a day after a television interview aired in which he said: "I don't think you can win it." At an American Legion convention in Nashville on his way to the Republican convention here, Bush promised victory in the war at various points throughout a 25-minute speech, using the word "win" six times. "We meet today at a time of war for our country, a war we did not start, yet one that we will win," Bush said.

What President Bush, Congress and the American people must focus on now when it comes to Iraq is what the United States will do after the Dec. 15 Iraqi election. Assuming a decent level of minority Sunni Arab participation, the election might open a last, narrow window for achieving a relatively secure, stable and democratic Iraq. Mr. Bush tried to start us down this road with his speech Wednesday at the U.S. Naval Academy detailing U.S. efforts to train Iraqi security forces that was accompanied by the release of a document, "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq."

ATLANTA - Just suspend disbelief for a little while. If you can do that - forget those annoying facts, ignore the complexities of world affairs and disregard chaos theory - you can believe that President Bush will win the war on terror. You can believe. But it requires some selective amnesia. You have to forget that Osama bin Laden - "We'll smoke him out of his cave," Mr. Bush declared three years ago - is still at large and planning murderous attacks. You have to ignore the aggressive insurgency in Iraq, ordinary Iraqis' resentment of the U.S. occupation and the failure to turn up weapons of mass destruction or evidence of a significant relationship between Saddam Hussein and bin Laden.

More than 200 Republicans from Harford County and beyond assembled Friday night in the main hangar of Forest Hill Industrial Air Park for a Lincoln Day Dinner to promote the party in Harford County. The dinner was sponsored by the Republican Central Committee of Harford County and is an annual event for the group. The featured event was a speech by Rep. H. James Saxton, 59, from New Jersey's 3rd District, who has served in the House of Representatives since 1985. Saxton is the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee's Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee.

WASHINGTON - I'm glad that frustrated FBI agents are banging away at all the missed signals that might have tipped us off to Sept. 11, but we need to remember something: Not all the signals for Sept. 11 were hidden. Many were out there in public, in the form of hate speech and conspiracy theories directed at America and preached in mosques and schools throughout the Muslim world. If we are intent on preventing the next Sept. 11, we need to do more than just spy on our enemies better in secret.