Or, it’s a war against the West that was first engaged in 1979.
I disagree this war has been going on since 1786, we just generally didn’t want anything from the middle east because they had nothing we want until we needed their oil.
In 1784 jihadists began attacking and pirating merchant ships in the mediterranean, their ambassador had a simple message
“That it was founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as Prisoners, and that every Musselman [Muslim] who should be slain in Battle was sure to go to Paradise.”
Our first foreign war was against the Jihadists.