Winning a War on War?

For the first and, I hope, the last time ever, I nearly agree with Steve Doocy of "Fox and Friends" about Barak Obama. On the campaign trail last year, and even in his State of the Union speech early this year, the President proudly claimed that "Al-Qaeda is on the path to defeat and Osama bin Laden is dead." It would appear to an observer, however, that that is an only half-correct analysis. Osama bin Laden is certainly dead, but is Al-Qaeda really on the path to defeat?

A look at recent news seems to show that Al-Qaeda may actually be growing. Recent terrorist attacks in Nigeria point to a growth in Islamic extremism there, with some groups liked to Al-Qaeda. In Somalia, the continuing unrest continues to allow the growth of Al-Shabaab, an Islamic militant group allied with Al-Qaeda. There is little evidence to indicate that Al-Qaeda has shrunken in Yemen and Pakistan, despite American drone strikes aimed at militant targets. Those drone strikes, by the way, are not just ineffective. Arguably, they also are unconstitutional and in violation of international law. Evidence points to Al-Qaeda being responsible for the attacks on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya last September, as Mr. Doocy was good enough to point out. The War in Iraq (which most certainly was not Obama's fault) enabled Al-Qaeda to spread there, too, in the power vacuum created by the absence of the strong and Shia government of Saddam Hussein. Obama wisely decided not to pursue defeating Islamic extremism there through continued occupation.

So, an overview of the region shows that Al-Qaeda, though they lack the figurehead of Osama bin Laden, is quite alive and kicking. Perhaps President Obama is privy to information that would prove me wrong. That is a likely scenario. That's why I nearly agree with Doocy. Perhaps my impression of the "War on Terror" is incorrect. But it still seems to me that Obama is lying. Terror attacks continue. Car bombs explode in Baghdad these days with a regularity seen only in the hight of the American occupation. Drone strikes are breeding high levels of anti-American antagonism among the citizens of Yemen and the areas along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, and with that comes increasing sympathy for Islamic extremist groups like Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

Here's a novel idea: What if, simply by fighting the "War on Terror," we lose? Perhaps we will lose a little less if we don't fight. Our present conundrum reminds me of a song by the band Wilco called "War on War." It goes like this:

It's a war on war (x7)

There's a war on

You're gonna lose

You have to learn how to die

…

You have to lose

You have to learn how to die

If you want to be alive