The War on Terror isn't lost, however it is not winnable. The War on Terror is similiar to the War on Poverty and the War on Drugs...open-ended with no real long term goals to end anything.
50 years from now we will still be funding the War on Terror, the War on Poverty and the War on Drugs.
The war on terror is won when Islamofascists of any stripe are so afraid of the consequences of a car bomb, that they decide to take up knitting. Unfortunately, the US wants to be perceived as a nice guy. This is nonsense. As the world's lone super power, like it or not, we have to carry out the responsibilities that come with the job instead of listening to UN third world thugs, etc.. Maybe we'll get lucky before April and Iran will wake up to a bunch of smoking bomb craters where they once had nuke facilities. (It's extremely important that WE do this, not Israel.)