We are in the middle of a war. The war is for the mindset of the western world. It is a war between conservatives and progressives, and its resolution hinges on the horrific.

It is perhaps a bit of hyperbole, but only a bit. The whole point to terror is to terrorize civilians, and with the chemical/biological/radiological nasties we have now, it would be possible to kill or maim 100,000 in the right venue. Think of the Super Bowl or St. Peters Square on a day when the Pope is speaking.

Like most of us, I've thought about this a bit and think that the reaction to an attack is fraught with complexities that have both progressives and conservatives scratching their heads. We are talking about a public reaction that would overwhelm any western government's standard level of control - the people would speak as one, and the government would have to follow - or fall.

Assuming that a terrorist organization wants to deal in this level of slaughter, two main questions emerge which bracket the actual event.

How can we stop it?
How do we respond to it?

Progressives and Conservatives certainly have different ideas about prevention - from abject surrender, thru engagement, to isolationism, low-grade conflict, realpolitik, reactive or preemptive attack, and everything in between. This can be endlessly debated, and really only has one place in the meme - after a large attack, how will whichever of the above that we are doing at the time be seen by the public?

The response to an attack like this is something neither Progressives nor Conservatives could predict. Their worst nightmare would occur - the people would decide. Conservatives might be faced with a population which demands isolationism or surrender, and Progressives could get swamped by a population with a blinding hatred for terrorist enablers and demanding the ultimate retaliation.

I don't think attacks to-date are any indication of how a country would react. Kill 50,000 in Madrid and you might get a different reaction than what occurred in Spain after the train bombings. Kill 50,000 in New York and Americans might just decide to leave the world to its fate and embrace isolationism again.

I'm sure both Progressives and Conservatives might like to say that a huge new attack would shock their populations into seeing things exactly their way...but mobs, whether 40 million in Spain or 300 million in the US, have a way of thinking with emotion, not realpolitik.

If you believe, as I do, that another attack is coming, then you might just see that you are in the middle of a battle to prepare your mind for the unthinkable.

The civilian and military minds anticipate and react to attacks each in a different manner. We know this.

Each mindset on its own has a serious failing.

A military mindset has little to hold it back - the mission is the end all and be all. It would be very easy to over-react (although I am not a fan of proportional response). Over-reaction to the point of insanity doesn't do anyone any good. You can't take back 300 nukes when 10 would have sent the message.

A civilian mindset is worthless in war. Suppose the hypothetical progressive government decides to prosecute the war to the utmost. They would have no support from the population which would be apathetic at best and downright obstructive at the worst - having been trained that way. It would take years to change the mindset with all the aggravations inherent in the task. Can you say draft?

I guess the best mindset for civilians in war would be a military one which also hated what it was doing (each and every minute) and (desperately) wanted to complete the mission so they could stop being military minded. I'm thinking of the Brits in World War II - stiff upper lip, get on with the job, etc. A people able to be world class warriors when the need arose - and world class civilians when the job was done.

What does that leave us with?

I'm seeing an attempt by conservatives to get civilians in a military mindset so that they react to an attack as a military would, attacking back with skill and aggression. I see Progressives trying to get civilians in a decidedly non-military mindset so that they would react as civilians would, becoming physical or mental refugees from conflict, and leaving the response to whatever the government wants to do.

Neither of these philosophies will work on its own.

It's a war folks; it's a war to prep you for the nastiness to come. Fight or flight. I vote fight, but that's just me.