I’m weary, but we must be vigilant.
These folks have been fighting the West for 1500 years. Believe me, even the most ignorant, impoverished Muslim knows chapter and verse every affront (in their eyes) that has been perpetrated on them by any Western nation, or leader, and they blame ALL of us for anything that was ever said, or done.
Yes but until recently (last couple of decades) they were irrelevant. What's changed? Well, organization and money I think. Organization in that they have the technology and backing of a handful of governments, giving them the opportunity to train, plan, and arm in impunity. And of course money has flowed from oil. Our strategy on the war has been to try to check the first item by cutting off access to sympathetic governments (Afghanistan and Iraq) so far but that just moves the threat to Iran and if we go there, they'll move to Sudan or Saudi or elsewhere. Eventually we'll lose political will to follow (I think we have already). So if that side of the conflict is turning out to be hard, what about oil money?
I'm not a global warming nut, but I think this country needs a major initiative to eliminate our dependance on fossil fuels. A manhattan project for our generation. If we succeed, the oil money will be cut off and the arab nations will, within a generation, go back to being irrelevant. If we fail, all we've done is waste money but the government would anyway so no real loss there.