With some luck, the war into which the US was unexpectedly thrust on September 11, 2001, will end in the same unconditional victory as did the war into which we were thrust on December 7, 1941. (At least your, and my, father's generation knew that they were in a war)
Yes, they were smart enough to realize that the survival of their way of life was at stake. They also had a strong sense of right and wrong (no situational ethics like today, no MSM trying to sabotage the war effort), and they were determined to right the wrong done on Dec.7,1941. Which meant that the perps had to pay with total defeat.