I'm glad President

Bush is talking tough.

I'm even glad

he's talking tough with a calm, soft voice.

While he's

talking softly, though, I hope he's carrying the proverbial big stick.

He is? Are

you sure?

Think about

it. For eight years we've been complaining about the dismantling of our

military by one William Jefferson Clinton.

Did we wake

up yesterday with a Republican president and suddenly everything's OK?

We're in the

middle of a thorough review of our condition, our mission and strategy,

remember? Bush didn't stroll into the White House and pull a lever that

started money flowing into the military. That was to come later.

But later came

sooner, didn't it.

Suddenly we

have a mission that's crystal clear. We have to go into several hostile

nations and root out entrenched terrorists who can vanish like roaches

when you turn on the kitchen light.

(I don't mind

telling you, all the talk by pundits about what our strategy must be makes

me very nervous. I can just see bin Laden's lieutenants watching CNN and

taking notes.)

So we have

a clear mission. Do we also have a strategy? I certainly pray that there's

more behind the president's promise that "the outcome is certain"

than the mere belief that we're the strongest nation on earth.

Yes, we are

the strongest nation on earth. We also have the most courageous, most

dedicated, most competent people in the world manning our guns. But this

war requires something more than strength ... more than courage and dedication,

too ... it requires cunning.

From what I've

read of Osama bin Laden and his followers, an all-out military commitment

they knew Uncle Remus, they would be congratulating themselves on having

captured br'er Bear's attention, and would be mocking us with cries of:

"Please don't throw us in that briar patch."

We're going

to have to figure out how not to be br'er Bear.

We've got to

outsmart a very smart foe. And it would be nice if we could do it without

making enemies of our friends, or of the fence-sitters in the region.

And I believe we have to do it without unnecessarily harming innocent

people.

And in fact

if we're smart enough, we even have the opportunity to do it while increasing

our influence in the region, possibly even worldwide. Wouldn't that be

something?

Those of you

who are praying, please pray for that.

One of the

things that has happened in recent years is that seasoned veterans have

left our armed services by the thousands, and one of the raps on the previous

administration was that our forces were stretched so thin because of the

number of missions they were asked to perform that there was little time

for training.

So while you're

praying, pray that the people asked to carry out this mission will be

the ones with the experience, the training and the cunning to pull it

off.

There is no

rehearsal. We have one chance to do this right.