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@@@ WASHINGTON 鈥?It has not gone without notice that on the eve of the 13th anniversary of 9/11, President Barack Obama will give a speech about a new and grave terrorist threat.The nationally televised address, set for 8 p.m., is the latest milestone of the Long War, as former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld dubbed it. ISIS or ISIL 鈥?the powers <a href=http://www.museosangennaro.com/Public/anel.php> Christian Louboutin Shoes UK</a> that be can鈥檛 even settle on the enemy鈥檚 name 鈥?has taken large chunks of Iraqi territory, slaughtered civilians and beheaded two American journalists in a gruesome propaganda ploy.ISIS, or the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, is the new al-Qaida, the Asymmetric Threat 2.0, a terrorist organization that has suddenly broken into the open and onto the headlines.It is the newest new reality of the never-ending war.Amid criticism that this threat snuck up on Obama, we are reminded again how different this struggle is from the wars that defined the Greatest Generation in World War II, or the World War I generation, whose opening shots just recently passed their 100-year anniversary. Even the morass of Vietnam came with political promises of permanent exit strategies and threats defined by borders.Not now.Not, perhaps, in your lifetime, or your children鈥檚.鈥淚 don鈥檛 think that this threat is ever going to go away, the notion that we can wipe out terrorist organizations in our world that has become very global in terms of its ability to communicate and its ability to travel,鈥?Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said Tuesday. 鈥淯nfortunately, terrorism is a new normal that we are going to have to fight, day in and day out.鈥漈he situation in Iraq and Syria that Obama will describe illustrates that. Many Americans thought the war in Iraq was long over. But now American air power, with some boots on the ground helping pinpoint airstrikes and bucking up anti-ISIS forces, is a primary force holding back further ISIS advances.A consensus seems to be growing in a normally divided Congress that Obama will need to explicitly and confidently lay out his plan to defeat this latest terrorist insurgency. His administration has given mixed signals on ISIS鈥?threat to the homeland, and members of Congress are looking for clarity on that front, too.鈥淚t鈥檚 clear that ISIS is not a 鈥榤anageable problem,鈥欌€?Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., told the Post-Dispatch, referring to Obama鈥檚 descriptions of the ISIS threat last week. 鈥淎mericans need to hear the president lay out a clear strategy to meet his stated objective to 鈥榙egrade and ultimately destroy鈥?this terrorist group. ISIS represents a real threat to our country, and it must be stopped.鈥滲lunt added: 鈥淲e are still fighting real and dangerous terrorist threats almost 13 years after the attacks on 9/11.鈥滿cCaskill said that 鈥渢he American people understand that this is a real threat.鈥淚 think they are going to want to hear, and what I want to hear, is what he has done and what I believe he has been doing the last couple of weeks, and that is building a coalition鈥?to fight the threat, McCaskill said.鈥淭his is something that can鈥檛 be <a href=http://www.symbiose.ca/images/christianlouboutin.gwij.php>Christian Louboutin Sale</a> fixed with a wave of a hand,鈥?she said. 鈥淚t is going to take some time and it is going to take intelligence. It is going to take some patience. <a href=http://capstone.edu.sg/clreplicashoes.php>Christian Louboutin Shoes Sale</a> I think we need to be very careful about rushing in because that is what we did in Iraq, and the outcome was not the best.鈥滱 new documentary, 鈥淭he American War Generals,鈥?which will be unveiled this Sunday at 7 p.m. on NatGeo TV, drives that final point home. The documentary is about the generals who designed and led the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.It is replete with candid admissions from those generals about how close the United States came to actually losing both wars. By the middle part of the last decade, with civil war and violence wracking Iraq, then-Commanding Gen. Raymond Odierno candidly admits that he felt like 鈥渨e were losing the war, and we were losing the war because we were not winning.鈥漈he latest threats presented by ISIS invoke that same question about the overall war against terrorism.In late 1942, just three years into World War II and less than three years from its eventual end, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill celebrated the rout of the German Army in North Africa by declaring that the war had decisively turned in the Allies鈥?direction.鈥淣ow this is not the end,鈥?锘緾hurchill said in London. 鈥淚t is not even the beginning of the end. But it is perhaps the end of the beginning.鈥漈hirteen years after 9/11, with a new threat replacing the fading memory of Osama bin Laden, Obama would be hard-pressed to repeat that declaration.
