It's the darkest web grey next to black, I think, but I can definitely see it. Sean says John Locke maintained that words don't mean things. Well, we're all entitled to our opinions - even 17th century English empiricist philosophers. Everyone, from the President on down, says we are at war. We are not at war.
War is something nations do.
As far as I know, a nation didn't do this thing. This is not a war. A more useful metaphor than war is crime. The terrorists of September 11th are outlaws within a global polity. The priority is, find out who did this and where they are.