> WHO exactly should we have defeated to end the scourge of radical Islam terrorism forever?? <
Good question. As I see it, this is not a war of territory, but of ideas. And George W. Bush set the tone when just after 9/11 he said “Islam is peace”.
We lost the war of ideas right there! We needed a verbal Patton. Perhaps Rudy Giuliani would have fit the bill. We needed someone to say, and keep repeating: “Every last hijacker on 9/11 was a Muslim. Islam needs to drastically reform, or be shunned by the world.”
That might have flown, given the outrage after 9/11. But instead we were told “Islam is peace.”
One of the most blasphemous and demonstrably false statements ever uttered in history.