This is the future of terrorism,” the president told his audience at the National Defense University in Washington. A “war on terror” must endure forever because, as Obama said, “we will never erase the evil that lies in the hearts of some human beings, nor stamp out every danger to our open society.” A war against identifiable foes, however, can be won — and, for the most part, has been. But armed drones are weapons of assassination, not of war as we know it.
– In his much-celebrated speech last week, President Obama said that "this war, like all wars, must end," and that al-Qaeda is "on the path to defeat." Well, PJ O'Rourke at the Weekly Standard has a word for that kind of thinking: "Stupid." His take? "This war, like all wars, must end when someone wins it," he quips, and al-Qaeda is "on the path to Boston and London and any number of other places." But Eugene Robinson at the Washington Post doesn't think those apparent lone-wolf attacks justify ongoing war. Yes, we'll probably suffer more attacks from Islamic radicals, but "what distinguishes their crimes from other senseless acts of violence? Put another way, what would the reaction have been if Adam Lanza … had yelled, 'Allahu akbar'?" Al-Qaeda is in shambles, and while Obama was wise enough not to declare victory, "columnists aren't obliged to be so circumspect: it is time to declare victory and get on with our lives." Click for O'Rourke's full column, or for Robinson's.