We are, as George the Younger tells us, “at war,” and having unpopular opinions during times of war is likely to get one shouted down, or worse. Fortunately, the War on Terror isn’t a real war; it is a “new kind of war,” otherwise its critics might find themselves in jail, as did critics of Lincoln’s and Wilson’s wars, never mind that pesky First Amendment. Yet the chilling effect is real, so real that when Gore Vidal, America’s greatest living man of letters, weighed in on the War on Terror, not even his friends at The Nation would publish him. … Continue reading Gore Vidal’s War on War