Post-War America?

Today marks the 11th anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center. Over 2,700 people lost their lives and and the U.S. was once again mobilized for war. This anniversary is not a time to debate the justification behind going to war in Afghanistan or Iraq. This anniversary is a time for mourning, but also a time for inward looking.

Each passing year, Americans are given the chance to re-evaluate the first major epoch of the new Millennium: The Post-9/11 Era.This re-evaluation should consider something that the Romney campaign has been asking in the last couple months: are we better off? Is our continued presence in Afghanistan a symbol of our enduring fight against terrorism, or an unrealistic nation-building project that will never take hold?  Given the implications of a war on terrorism, will we ever be a post-war nation?

When President George W. Bush stood on the ruins of the World Trade Center, he vowed to hunt down the perpetrators of the horrendous attacks. We searched for terrorists and their sympathizers in caves, city streets, village squares and urban homes. With bomb, missile, artillery and gunship, we collapsed networks and disrupted cells.

That was Iraq. That was Afghanistan.

Now, it's Yemen. It's Somalia. It's Pakistan. It's Karachi, Mogadishu, Tehran, Sanaa and Aleppo. It happens on subways in London and Madrid, hotels in Mumbai and secret compounds in Pakistan. It is disruptive, unstable and unending.

This War on Terror is a misnomer: it is not a war.

Wars end.