We're in the midst of a war.

It's a war whose progression we can chart with absolute confidence. What started out as undeclared skirmishes has steadily escalated into a head-to-head battle in the last few months.

It's going to get worse. In the next three weeks there will be no holds barred, no holding back, as the warring forces focus all their weapons, all their resources, all their powers, upon each other.

Thankfully this war has a definitive end-date. This is a war-of-words, a conflict-of-ideas, a political battle. Come Election Day, a victor will be declared, a contender vanquished.

That is, until the next big political contest. Then the wars will begin all over again.

But the blood-letting recycled by political elections can't begin to compare with the centuries of gory gouges the chu…