Originally posted by Venerable Bede:
we're fighting for our freedom. the terrorists, they hate our freedom. they want to wrap you up in a burka and keep you for learning how to read.
I think that was meant to be sarcastic, but that IS what Islamists want. Al Qaeda and its knockoffs are basically a ghoulish, global death cult which would like to turn the entire world back to the 12th century, where women were treated as livestock and people were tortured to death for the smallest imagined moral offenses.
The problem with the War on Terror is that terrorism is a means, and it's a means that has been around since the beginning of time and will be around forever (and which we've employed when it suited us, too). Thus by definition such a war can never end.
I'd be much more comfortable with a Global War against Al Qaeda, or a Global War against Islamofascism. That way you've got a limited enemy -- I'd say no more than 15,000 - 20,000 tops as far as instigators and people actually willing to do something. Rather than attacking nations, we should be focused on knocking off these individuals and their support systems, one by one. Radical clerics in London? Deport 'em. Radical mosques in Newark? Close 'em. Financial backers? Shoot 'em. It all could be over in 10 years.
