The neo-cons in the Republican Party have always believed that the United States could use military power to bully the rest of the world into doing whatever we want them to do. One would have thought that Vietnam would have disabused them of that notion, but it didn't. They just decided that their beliefs failed in Vietnam because the U.S. didn't use enough military power.So it shouldn't have surprised anyone when, after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Bush administration (which was peopled with those neo-cons) decided the way to fight the war on terror was to use our military power to invade and occupy Afghanistan and Iraq. It was a silly policy, and destined to fail -- since terrorists don't have borders or countries, and can move their operations at will. But they did it anyway, and too many Democrats were persuaded to go along with it (including President Obama, who has yet to withdraw our troops from Afghanistan after more than a decade of senseless war).
This begs the question of just who is winning the war on terror. Has our policy of invasion and occupation accomplished our goal of suppressing terror, or are the terrorists winning? The charts above are made with information from several Rasmussen Polls on the question (all querying 1,000 nationwide adults, and having a margin of error of 3 points).
These surveys show that Americans are finally waking up, and beginning to question the use of military power instead of judicial power to quell the criminal actions of the terrorists. Note that those who believe the U.S. is winning the war on terror is on a downward trend, while those believing the terrorists are winning are increasing. In fact, the nearly one third of Americans (30%) who believe the terrorists are winning marks the most since January of 2011.
It is time for our leaders in both political parties to realize that, while we have the most powerful and effective military in the world, military power has its limitations. It is extremely effective in a conventional war, but it is not effective at all in either nation-building or fighting terrorism. Nation-building is best done through diplomacy, and the fight against terrorists is best done with the rule of law (by using law enforcement and the courts).
America leads best when it leads by example, and recent failed military efforts (Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan) should teach us that military power is not the answer to all of our problems.
