We are currently preceding at best speed to our launch
point for tonight's strikes, off the coast of Pakistan,
nearly 700 miles south of our targets in Afghanistan. At
midnight, CVW 7 will launch into the dark night, and strike
their first blows of Operation Enduring Freedom, the war on
terrorism. For us this is a culminating point in space, a
culminating point in time, and a culminating point in
history.

Our enemy is a group of religious fanatics, who pervert the
peace of Islam and twist its meaning to justify the murder
of thousands of innocents at the Twin Towers of New York,
at the Pentagon, and in a field in Pennsylvania.

They hate us and attack us because they oppose all that is
good about America. They hate us because we are prosperous.
They hate us because we are tolerant. They hate us because
we are happy. Mostly, they hate us because we are free and
because we will "pay any price, bear any burden, meet any
hardship, support any friend or oppose any foe to assure
the survival and success of liberty." Make no mistake -
this is fight for Western Civilization. If these monsters
are not destroyed they will destroy us, and our children
and children's children will live in fear forever.

America is the only nation that can stop them and destroy
them. Only America has the strength of character and the
vast resources to hunt these fanatics down anywhere in the
world. We have friends and Allies but we are the leaders of
the world our forefathers made and died for.

We represent America in all its power and diversity. We are
men and women, rich and poor, black and white, and all
colors of the human rainbow. We are Christian, Jew, and
yes, Muslim. We ARE America.

Stay sharp. Stay focused. Stay safe. Use the training that
has made you the best Sailors in the world.

Trust in your faith, and in your shipmates. God bless us
all, and God bless America.

My own body-mass index has been growing ominously for years despite valiant efforts at resistance, but I am unwilling to blame the health authorities for my plight; I know the consequences of my habits. My sedentary lifestyle, eating and drinking habits continue as they always have with counter-attacks at the margins because I am boxed in by the exigencies of the way I live.

One afternoon last week the galleries were crowded with middle-aged suburbanites from places like Bloomfield Hills, Mich., and Greenwich, Conn., sporting fanny packs, Dockers and sensible shoes. Judging by the name tags around their necks, they had come under the auspices of the Museum of American Folk Art--a legal way to circumvent the U.S.-imposed travel ban, which allows Americans to visit here only for cultural, historical or journalistic purposes.