The Wilmington morning star., 1944-10-22
TODAY and TOMORROW
By WALTER LIPPMANN :

- By WALTEF
My colleague, Mr.. Mark Sullivan
has introduced the word exegesis,
which means the 9expounding of
texts, into the political campaign.
Perhaps a better word for what
he has in mind would be pettifog-
gerry, or even pettifogulizing, which
means not the eXpounding of. texts
but their tortuous construction.
Be that as it may, the fact is
that much of the discussion among
civilians at home, in the campaign
and outside of it III regard to peace
making, to the Dumbarton propo-
sails, and to rehabilitation and re-
conversion, is based on what is al
most certainly a gigantically false
estimate of the state of the war.
For there is an underlying assump-
,tion that for all practical purposes
the war is just about over, or at
least completely in the bag.
This is not true, and to believe
IT. is sleepwalking. The notion that
victory and peace are just around
the corner is so thoroughly untrue
that if we allow ourselves to en-
terrain it we shall invite heart
breaking disappointments and we
shall multiply and prolong tn e
agonies of war.
In Europe, no doubt, we are in
a late phase of the organized fight
ing. But this late phase, whether it
is matter of weeks or of months,
is almost certin to be bitter and
bloody, and even when military re-
sistance is crushed, our men will
enter country which will have
been organized with fiendish cum
ming to make life hard, tricky and
They will find them
selves on continent in which the
wreckage of mems nerves will be
even more terrible than the ma
terial devastation.
For all the fierce fighting they
still have to do, and for the subtle
and intricate tasks which will fol-
low as soon as. the fighting ends,
they are entitled to have, and will
need, the unflinching support of the
people here at home. We are with
from them the kind of sup
port which they n d the most
when we behave here as if, so far
as the civilians are concerned, the
war is over and what remains
to be done can be discounted and
written off.
The true position in the war with
Japan is, if one judges by the
campaign talks, entirely unrealiz-
ed. The victories of the Navy have
been so brilliant, so majestic in
plan d execution, that it seems
tc be taken for granted that with
a little more of the same thing,
Japan will be down and out.
No one in the Navy thinks that,
and no one else thinks it who has
taken the trouble to inform him
self about the strength of Japan
and the extraordinary difficulty of
getting in decisive blow against
Japan. The truth is that there is
not shred of evidence which per-
mits us to doubt that the greatest
battles of the Pacific war not only
lie ahead of us, but lie so far ahead
Of us that we are not yet able
to plan and prepare them. r.
We are succeeding. no doubt, in
cutting the connection between ia
pan and the rich southern lands
which she conquered in 1912. Even
then the task of roofing out the
Japanese garrisons in the Philip
pines, the Indies, Malaga and Bur-
ma, is going to be a tremendous
ordeal for American, Filipino, Brit
ish and Dutch troops.
Yet the main strength Of Japan
is not in these outposts of her con-
main strength is in
northern China, IN Manchuria, and
in the japanese homeland. It may
be as much as 70 per cent of her
m y. Japan has a somewhat
smaller total population than the
United States: nevertheless because
of her higher birthrate, she has
younger population and nearly as
many men of military age as we
have. The japanese are, moreover,
close to their main bases of sup
ply, whereas we have to use enor-
NOUS numbers of men to transport
and supply our forces across the
Pacific. We should deceive our
selves dangerously if we did not
realize that in the places where the
QeciSiVp hattlac will b ava Ia bo-