Permit me to put things into an cynical old man's perspective....who has "been there, seen that and done this before" ---- a long time ago.
We are NOT killing the Jihadists/Thugs in numbers large enough to DEFEAT THEM - with "them" being Militant Islamists.
We were killing a MUCH larger percentage of the enemy forces - VC & NVA in Vietnam than we are killing in the middle east.
The cost per enemy corpse in the middle east is staggering... At the current enemy KIA:Cost ratio, there isn't enough money in the world to destroy enough to defeat them.
We are NOT destroying the enemy nation's infrastructure, means of production or wealth accumulation -- as we did to some degree in North Vietnam..
Iran, Syria and to a more complicated scenario - Pakistan have been literally untouched.
The U.S. Congress in again in the hands of the Democrats, the SAME party that led the charge to abandon Vietnam.
They are ALREADY "proudly" making the same noises again -- emboldening the enemy and preparing to award an unearned victory to our enemy.
With the bleating Democrats and surrender monkeys wailing on TV --- it will encourage the enemy to make a few more strikes on America to panic the pansies in congress and "finish us off"...
The ONLY potentially good result from that scenario - is that Leftists/Liberals/Naive assholes will also die in the next terrorist attacks on America...
I can't imagine how many Leftists/Liberal/Democrats deaths it will take to frighten them into fighting....
We must acknowledge that war has been declared against us and is being waged against us - with no holds barred. In response - we need to fight this war from our strongest advantage points -- also, with NO HOLDS BARRED and no sanctuary, no safe cities, no supporter of the enemy spared the consequences of that support..
If the Islamic Republics and the wombs that deliver these Jihadist bastards into the world, can't constrain them -- then we should strike at their homes and breeding grounds until the message is understood.....
Until then -- we are expending blood and treasure on a fool's errand ---- and will surely lose.
Semper Fi
The parallels to Vietnam are only apt because, as you stated, the leftist bitches in this country are actively working to embolden our enemies and undercut our military.
But that is where the similarity ends. The bottom line is this regarding the WOT: we need the muslims to do their part to reign in the jihadis. Wholesale destruction of Mecca or Islamabad or Khartoum will turn the entire muslim world against us so we'd have to destroy them all...which we could do, but there are a billion of them and we'd be doing it alone.
This is a different kind of war, mainly against entities that claim no one home. They are spread throughout the muslim world in cells and small groups, mainly. There are exceptions: Iran and Syria should be dealt with directly, and I believe we will end up doing just that. The Hezzies in Lebanon are a state within a state and will need to be destroyed. And it looks like a new Lebanese civil war may be brewing as we speak.
But Jordan, Morrocco, Tunisia, Quatar, Kuwait, the UAE amongst other muslim countries have been not only killing off their homegrown jihadis but have been actively helping the US with intelligence and other aid to win this thing. Even Pakistan, perhaps the home of more jihadis per capita than any place on earth, has done some serious heavy lifting to hunt down these animals. Pak provided Britain with the intelligence to help bust the planned airline bombers, they captured Khalid Shiek Mohammed and numerous other bigs for the US, they have (sporadically, yet recently) been battling the AQ and taliban in their own borders, and they helped bust the clandestine nuclear ring. The soldiers volunteering in Iraq and Afghanistan are numerous and are being trained by us to be far better warriors than the militias and terrorists, and have really started to prove themselves. The Afghan and Iraq people and tribal leaders have been responsible for leading us to terrorists and weapons caches too numerous to keep track of.
In Afghanistan, despite the NY Times insurgent cheerleading, the "resurgent" Taliban have been getting literally slaughtered by US and NATO and Afghan forces. In Iraq, we've given the al-maliki gov't too much say on who we should be targeting the last 9 months, but that apparently, after much arm twisting, has ended.
Jihadis from around the world have made their way to Afg. & Iraq to take on the great satan, but are finding that its a sure way to die. The flypaper stategy is working. And all we have to do is continue to snuff them until the said gov't forces are capable of doing that on their own. In Afhganistan, we are probably 5 years away from that point. In iraq, maybe two years.
In the mean time, the gloves are off and the isnurgents have no chance of 'victory', and you and I and millions of other patriotic US citizens must confront the other enemy - the media and the democrats.