But, Charlie, “war on terror” is just a metaphor.

Charles Krauthammer on words President Obama isn't saying

Like “war on crime” or “war on poverty,” the expression is not used literally, though there is, literally, a war on against al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Chechen fighters and terrorists in Russia are not members of either group, though indeed they are in sympathy with them and their causes.

As were the Boston Bombers and as have been numerous people bent on terrorism in the US.

All the same, there is no literal war with them and they are literally only criminals, in the same boat legally as Americans guilty of such violence.

And the broader, global struggle against Muslim terrorism is mostly a matter of exceptionally aggressive law enforcement, necessarily relying on an unprecedented intelligence effort, aimed more than usually at prevention, though in part it relies on presidential use of military or other force, short of war, outside our borders and against folks with whom we are not literally at war, such as Islamist terrorists, guerrillas  or soldiers in sub-Saharan Africa.

And the “generational struggle” that could actually go on rather longer than that, and longer even than the cold war, properly conducted, can and should demand far less of the people than any actual war and not much more than extra money, as compared to ordinary law enforcement.

Comparisons with World War Two are absurd.

Even comparisons with America's centuries of Indian Wars, though perhaps unfortunately similar in likely duration, are not entirely apt.

As for the Boston Bombers, their Mom has an outstanding warrant waiting for her for shoplifting?

Muslim white trash, are they?