[fortheDeclaration]

Yet if as a nation we instead believe that we cannot abide error, or that we cannot win due to necessary military, moral, humanitarian, financial, or geopolitical constraints, then we should not ask our young soldiers to continue to try.

That is the key statement in the article.

Is our goal destroying Islamic terrorism or creating a new world order?

[vbmoneyspender]

Al Qaeda’s goal is to recreate the Caliphate. Our goal is to prevent them from achieving their goal. We have done that by turning the heart of the Caliphate into a Shiite-based democracy.

[billorites]

"what loses wars are not the inevitable mistakes, but the failure to correct them in time and the defeatism and depression (because errors occurred at all) that we allow to paralyze us."

What VDH fails to mention is that element of political class who perceive our defeat in the WOT as working somehow to their advantage.