14 Years of War and We Still Haven’t Learned the Right Lesson
14 Years of War and We Still Haven't Learned the Right Lesson by Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton. USA Today
… No longer are we unprepared or unaware — as we were on the morning of 9/11. Yet terrorism continues to plague us. The Islamic State terrorist group's combination of territory, resources and global appeal makes it more dangerous than previously acknowledged and more of a threat than al-Qaeda.
We must gird ourselves for the possibility of more attacks. We have been largely successful in protecting our homeland, and those efforts should be intensified. This means increasing surveillance, sharpening intelligence, cutting off illicit financial flows and enhancing intelligence sharing with our allies. And we must marshal a “coalition of the willing” to take the military fight to the enemy with a much more robust effort to deny ISIL a haven in Syria and Iraq, and lead a diplomatic offensive to bring an end to the Syrian civil war.
But we must also reflect on why — after a decade and a half — the threat of Islamist terrorism remains not just undiminished but enhanced…
