Now, again, comes the Green Screen of War; those night-vision lenses on television cameras which enhance the detonation of bombs and missiles and which track tracers fired in opposition to the planes, but which provide no texture, and little true meaning.
This, from everything we heard yesterday and last night, was the beginning of a very sophisticated operation. It combines the extremely effective military and psychological effects of concentrated air power with the highly publicized efforts to get food and medicine to the very people that the Taliban have forced into a state of collapse on the doorstep of starvation.
The entire U.S. government is involved: From the intelligence agencies to the Commerce Department. From the Air Force, which is not only delivering ordnance, but is also delivering the output of the combined capabilities of the Agriculture Department and the United States Agency for International Development bringing emergency food supplies to the refugees.
From the Offices of the President and the Vice President to the State Department; from the investigatory agencies of the Justice Department to the Treasury Department.
The Cabinet Secretaries are on a war footing. Over the weekend Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill hosted a G-7 meeting consisting of the finance ministers of the major economic powers. That went on without the usual demonstrations because it went on with a minimum of publicity.
Secretary Rumsfeld made a final tour through the region to get the highest possible level of cooperation from the Islamic states. Secretary Powell will be off to India and Pakistan later this week to help them understand our long-term strategy.
President Bush, starting with the evening of September 11th has made it clear what the Taliban had to do to avoid this. He reiterated the list when he addressed the nation yesterday: "Close terrorist training camps. Hand over leaders of the al-Qaida network, and return all foreign nationals, including American citizens unjustly detained in your country."
The Taliban didn't comply. Now they face the Green Screen of War. As the President said, "None of these demands were met. And now, the Taliban will pay a price."
Tony Blair's British Government is sailing gunwale-to-gunwale with US Naval forces. Blair, whose eloquence on the night of September 11th, won him two standing ovations at President Bush's speech to the Joint Session of Congress, called a special session of the Parliament yesterday in which he said "The world understands that whilst, of course, there are dangers in acting as we are, the dangers of inaction are far, far greater - the threat of further such outrages, the threats to our economies, the threat to the stability of the world."
Mr. Blair and President Bush both pointed out that the assets of the Canadians, French, Germans, and Australians will be brought to bear in the days and weeks to come.
The Middle Eastern countries are, from published reports, allowing use of their air space, landing rights, use of command and control facilities, and are sharing their intelligence reports.
Is it everything we wanted? Probably not. But it appears that the President, the Vice President, the National Security Advisor, Powell and Rumsfeld persuaded them to give more - perhaps much more - than they originally thought they could.
The leaders of the Congress - Republicans and Democrats - have shown a level of political maturity and sophistication we might never have guessed they possessed. The actions of Jim Jeffords - leaving the GOP and throwing the Senate to the Democrats has allowed the Majority Leader, Tom Daschle, to forge a war alliance with the President which would not have been possible had the GOP still controlled the Presidency, the House and the Senate.
For his part, House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt has proven an extremely able leader - a statesman, in fact - taking positions which might well cost him his best chance of leading the Democrats back to control of the House as the price he pays for helping lead the nation in this time of war.
The Green Screen of War is glowing on television sets around the world. We pray for the safety of the dedicated men and women involved in this effort, many of them young men and women. Those under arms, certainly, but also those in embassies, those at US and international aid agencies, and those whose contributions - and sacrifices - will never be known.
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