The war against jihadi terrorism won't end because we say it's over.
We've achieved much in containing the Islamist terror threat:
A grueling offensive by Iraqi troops militias -- supported by U.S. airpower -- retook Mosul. U.S. and coalition forces continue to battle terrorists in Syria's cauldron. Russian and Turkish forces confront others.
Yemen is anarchic. U.S. commandos and armed drones still wage war on al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen, but off media radar.
What goes on in Iraq, Syria and Yemen is a form of guard duty. Add Somalia to the list. In case you've missed it, the U.S. has withdrawn from Somalia.
What's the difference between Afghanistan and these other chaotic, anarchic hells?
What they have in common is that they are all places where we are on "guard duty" helping local forces fight jihadis. This isn't a "war" that must be ended. This is a rough "peace" short of constant battle using American ground troops that shields us at home until the Islamic world can resolve its civil war in favor of the non-nutballs.
These are the Global Troubles:
Perhaps the British had the right idea by calling their long struggle with Irish terrorists "the troubles."
We have the "war on terror" which for a while in the Afghanistan and Iraq theaters was a real war.
But once the direct threats were defeated on the battlefield and whittled down to a size allies can handle with our help, it is something other than a war despite continued American military roles.
Yet after doing the heavy lifting to get to this "guard duty" place (or "mowing the jihadi grass", as I noted), Americans seemingly are ready to throw it all away and risk our jihadi enemies regrouping and coming after us again.
We haven't totally given up on Afghanistan--which is accurate if the Afghan government gets through a morale danger zone. Remember, the Taliban are working very hard to portray an image of victory despite their losses and their problems--which we can't see in contrast to our own side's more obvious problems.
But we'll see if America can hold the line in Afghanistan from afar in the Global Troubles that haven't gone away on their own.
