World War IV.
“The War on Terrorism” is not a satisfying name. It causes one to think of wars on poverty and drugs, wars without beginning or end. To dress up the name as “the Global War on Terrorism” doesn’t sound right, either. Perhaps just “the Global War” would suffice. Alternatively, the hidden nature of this war might lead us to call it “the Invisible War.” But key aspects of the war have been highly conspicuous, from the 9/11 attacks to the precision bombardment of Saddam’s palaces.
American intelligence and military officials are calling it “World War IV” according to Doug Saunders. (*). The Cold War assumes the role of the third world war. This is a new kind of warfare, as Brian Murphy reports. (†) James Woolsey says that it is not the type of fighting that should decide the name, but the site of the war, and today the entire world is a battleground. (‡) (§)
To get the name right, a better understanding of the war will be required. The best way to understand the war is to break it into parts, as Arnold Kling does. (**) Once we understand the parts, we can decide whether this is truly the fourth world war. We will know soon. Saunders and others believe this is a war on an ideology and so cannot come to an end. He fails to note, however, that a certain war on communist ideology, “the Cold War,” did come to a striking and unmistakable conclusion. We shall have a finale to this war, one way or another. Winning it, then, is of supreme importance.