What we need to do is to understand that Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, etc are not separate wars to be fought when we get the urge to have headlines. They are all part of the same war, different fronts, different battles, but the same enemy. This is, as has been said many times, a clash of civilizations. Now to many of the small minded this sounds like hyperbole but how many realized that they were fighting in a WORLD WAR until after it was almost over. You have to go back centuries to understand.
This is how far Islam advanced in 150 years without the Internet to spread the word, airlines to deliver soldiers, or the real knowledge of what lay out there (like other kingdoms and the like).
It took centuries to fight this back to where we are today, or to where we used to be a hundred years ago. In the last 100 years Islam has advanced deeper into Africa, Europe, Asia, and even the United States. We have over 8 miilion Muslims who have established enclaves in this country. We only see a few that whose very job is to look benign and safe. This does not even include the racist component of the Nation of Islam whose leader is now calling for his members to arm themselves and to train for combat (against us!).
In the past we have always debated whether we wanted a leader who was "one of us" or someone who was special. Did we want another Jimmy Carter or another Teddy Roosevelt? I think we have our answer. Obama is "one of us" in so many ways. He absolutely refuses to see the possibility of the future. He is stuck in the here and now and complains about the past. He cannot see the possibility of this country ceasing to exist (actually he may be looking forward to it) and what that will mean to the world.
We are looking at a war that will go on for generations. One outcome is another stalemate that will last for another five hundred years with squabbles and fighting between cousins (the west) but with relative freedom. The other outcome is a totalitarian, world wide system of government plus religion where the threat of execution will be an everyday thing. The high and mighty will be corrupted and the lesser being will pay the price. It will be a new dark age for the earth. Some like to say that the Arabs influenced the west with math and technology but that was the ARABS and not the MUSLIMS. The Muslim faith has contributed very little besides pain and suffering. People still ask how someone could follow Hitler or Stalin but you're seeing it in action now. Young people who have lost their way in a hyper secular society are looking for something solid, something that is "eternal". A number of young people find it in the military and other politics but you can be a soldier for only so long and politics become corrupted. They want something else and then there is religion. Which religion appeals to a young person? A religion that is constantly beaten up in the media and film or a religion that people are afraid of? They're choosing.
To go back to the beginning, this is one war with one enemy. We need to fight this war on all fronts with everything we have....or lose.