Our leaders and much of the media tell us that we're a nation at war. But that was a bad metaphor from the start, and looks worse as time goes by.

In both human and economic terms the effects of Sept. 11 itself resembled those not of a military attack but of a natural disaster.

Just inches away, former Enron adviser Paul Krugman makes the identical point: "Our leaders and much of the media tell us that we're a nation at war. But that was a bad metaphor from the start, and looks worse as time goes by. In both human and economic terms the effects of Sept. 11 itself resembled those not of a military attack but of a natural disaster."

This is unbelievably silly. "Wars" on cancer and drugs are metaphors because they aren't really wars. While one might reasonably complain that the formulation of a war "on terrorism" ill defines the enemy (though of course events have defined at last three distinct enemies--al Qaeda, the Taliban and Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq), there's no question it is an armed conflict--a literal war. Krugman is an economist, so language isn't his specialty, although likening a terrorist attack to a "natural disaster" is a bit much even then. But (Susan) Sontag is reputed to be a writer of some sort. You'd think she'd know what a metaphor is.