FIVE YEARS AFTER the attacks of September 11, 2001, we face many threats at home and abroad, yet our response has been mostly superficial and expedient. One is left to wonder: Are we serious about winning this fight?
Al Qaeda’s Ayman al-Zawahiri recently called for an expansion of the fight against the West and pointing out that future attacks could take place anywhere in the world. This kind of talk from radical Islamic quarters is not new; in fact, we have been suffering both the rhetoric and the actions of these terrorists for nearly 30 years. Yet we declared the war on terror only after we had run out of cheeks to turn–and still the media call terrorists “militants” and practically use air-quotes when mentioning the conflict. They are similarly squeamish about any attempt to communicate the positive gains made thus far in the war. Yet using the body counts–primarily of American bodies–to measure success or failure is as misleading today as it was 40 years ago.
