Minnie & Me Across The Deep Blue Sea: The War on Terror

In amongst all the 'usual' memorials on the Green in Litchfield today - for both world wars, the Korean war, the Vietnam war...this memorial, which was something I didn't expect to see. I can't imagine there ever being this sort of plaque in Britain or Europe. I don't have an opinion on it particularly, I just wonder whether the centuries-old concept of 'terrorism' can really be defined in such black and white terms as 'war'? Perhaps it is because until 9/11, America felt too big and too far from anywhere dangerous to be touched by the perennial unrest that troubled the rest of us. In the aftermath, perhaps their sense of invincibility has been shaken much more fundamentally? Perhaps, to them, that's why the definition of 'war' is fitting? It's the only way they can come to terms with what happened. Not a random act of horrifying violence by an undoubtedly crazed but nevertheless fringe clique of nutters (until the War on Terror unintentionally delivered them undeserved kudos) but a strike at the very heart of what the nation stands for. However you define what's occurred since 9/11, the saddest thing is to see so many names on this fresh memorial to America's newest kind of war.