Bellum Aeternum | The Eternal War

The War on Terror Turns 20 next year; far outliving many of its casualties. Will it ever end? Can it?

The remnants of an army, Jellalabad, 1879, by Elizabeth Thompson. It depicts William Brydon, assistant surgeon in the Bengal Army, arriving at the gates of Jalalabad in January 1842. The walls of Jalalabad loom over a desolate plain and riders from the garrison gallop from the gate to reach the solitary figure bringing the first word of the fate of the “Army of Afghanistan”.

The Global War on Terror, now approaching it’s twentieth year, has become the longest and, arguably, most fruitless military endeavor in modern American history. What began as a righteous crusade to bring rogue non-state actors to heel, has now become an enfeebled campaign spanning the entire globe and…