http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/09/07/mission_accomplished_finally…

“The long war provoked by the attacks of Sept. 11 is over.” Thus begins Mr. Ackerman’s argument for rethinking the outdated self-given permissions of the American Congress to wage war on our ‘attackers’ of September 11, 2001. Is it possible that any Legitimist critique of American Foreign Policy must begin by an unquestioning obeisance to the rhetorical norms of American Exceptionalism? As foundational to any ‘serious’ conversation, involving political thinkers situated within an audience who identify as Legitimist, prima facie. In essence he speaks to an audience of the like minded. Given that rhetorical structure, any question of the casus belli are rendered irrelevant from the start, and the rhetoric used is by mutual consent  the values of inquirer and auditors. So we are left with the truncated conjectures and policy arguments of an Establishment Intellectual who wishes to end the nihilistic policies of the past, while ignoring the precipitating causes, a prescription for failure. The reader can only sympathize with the arguments presented by Mr. Ackerman but the rhetorical frame renders all after it as compromised.

Political Observer