CLARITY

"Clarity! We will know what we're up against. But people with memories of elephantine persistence may recall a certain rhetorical formulation all the rage five years ago: You're either with us, or on the side of the terrorists.

Those were days of clarity and resolve, two things that horrify the international community. Diplomats live in a fog of smiles and sheathed knives, and the idea that one could behold the world in terms of Naughty and Nice threatened to upset the order that had kept the peace for 60 years. By "peace," we mean no fistfights in the U.N. dining room. Outside of that, who cares?

But clarity is not enough without action; one can say that bank robbing is wrong, but it helps also to install alarms, stock up on exploding dye packs, hire cops and build prisons. It doesn't help that the penalty for being on the side of the terrorists appears as dire as for an overdue movie rental." -- JAMES LILEKS