As we reflect on the terrifying events of September 11, 2001, we are haunted by similarities from our past. But historical analogies require careful examination, since our choice of them influences how we will think, speak, and act. Commentators have compared the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon to Pearl Harbor, because both attacks occurred without warning. With Pearl Harbor as the main analogue, the attacks on New York and Washington were quickly labeled “acts of war.” This is understandable, but dangerously inaccurate. It hides massive illegality under the guise of rules of engagement – ​​precisely what terrorists deny with their shameful transformation of civilian aircraft into weapons of destruction. The attacks on New York and Washington were also different from Pearl Harbor in that the destruction wrought by Japanese forces had a clear and official government return address. As President Bush acknowledged in his address to Congress last week, the perpetrators of the recent attacks are a "collection of loosely affiliated terrorist organizations" and "there are thousands of these terrorists in more than 60 countries." This is not the language of war, but of crime. The analogy with Pearl Harbor is seriously lame and leads to political judgments of dubious value. The recent atrocities have a much closer precedent in the events leading up to the First World War. On June 28, 1914, Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was assassinated in Sarajevo. The Austrian investigation into the terrorist attack has failed to establish a firm link with Serbia, the most likely suspect of hosting, if not organizing, the assassination. Meanwhile, the revulsion against the act has subsided. When the Austrians decided to act against Serbia (without clear evidence or clear objectives, but only to “punish” Serbia), they did not have the kind of support that would have prevented the protest from escalating into a global conflict with devastating consequences for decades. This is no time to drop smart or dumb bombs into a war that cannot be won from the air. The goal of locating a suspect is right. The killing of innocent men, women and children living in their neighborhoods is not. He will not avenge our painful loss. He will recruit new members for the terrorists. This is not even the time to launch an invasion of infantry divisions in a war that the Russians say will not go well for us, and which will do nothing but rally poor Afghans around leaders they chafe under...