I would like to mention two points that have bearing but are overlooked often.

1-We are "not" a democracy we are a Constitutional Republic. If we were a democracy "Al Gore" would have been president (he had the most votes). Then we go public and invade a country to give them democracy which we don't even have in this country. I went all the way through school and not once did I ever pledge allegiance to the democracy for which it stands! But to the Republic for which it stands! Don't you think the rest of the world sees the hypocrisy of this? We have lost the moral high ground through our own stupidity.

2-The types of enemies we are fighting are very different. Rob Thornton of SWC has talked about Mosul and the fact that generations of children have been raised in war, that is all they know. That is very different than a traditional insurgent or even gang motives. It is closer to tribal conditioned serial murders and that is a poor description. When the FBI originally began to profile what we now call serial killers they wanted to call them "Recreational Killers" they did it because they liked it or had simply grown used to it. The name was changed because it was not PC but it is more descriptive. What does this forecast? You are not going to win the hearts and minds of these groups they will take at a sign of weakness and just become more ruthless and brutal. Your only options are to kill them or imprison them for life.

Fabius may be right when he says we should concentrate on the defense because it is surely lacking in our country.