9/11: Unfinished Business

English: President George W. Bush and President-elect Barack Obama meet in the Oval Office of the White House Monday, November 10, 2008. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

On the anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in American history, it's time once again to take up arms against a foe that could be a threat to the so-called "homeland" that we really don't know much about.  Just like Ho Chi Minh, Saddam Hussein and the Taliban.

Their name is ISIS.  Or is it ISIL?  Whatever their name is, they're another terrorist organization based in the Middle East bent on spreading death, destruction, and the imposition of their fundamentalist brand of Islam on the entire world.  Just like Al Qaeda and its spinoffs.  ISIS/ISIL is reputedly more dangerous and better funded than Al Qaeda ever was, having swallowed up chunks of Syria and Iraq by taking advantage of political instability in both countries.

ISIS/ISIL has gotten the world's attention through kidnappings of Westerners and beheadings, and have succeeded in getting some Europeans and Americans to join them through such recruitment tools as the Internet.

If ISIS/ISIL is as brutal as some government officials say they are, then what has President Barack Obama done about it?  Well, so far he's ordered airstrikes inside Iraq to take the pressure off the friendly forces battling back the insurgents, helped form a new coalition government to replace the old corrupt one, and sent some soldiers to provide more security to the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.

But all that doesn't seem to be enough.  So the President made a nationwide address Wednesday night to tell us what more he can do to meet the threat ISIS/ISIL supposedly poses.  Such as more airstrikes (which will now include Syria, whether Bashir Assad likes it or not), more military advisers, more aid to those fighting ISIS/ISIL, and an attempt at putting together a worldwide coalition to help defeat the terrorists.  The President has even promised no American "boots" on Iraqi soil.  Let's see how long that lasts.

President Obama has said this new conflict could take awhile.  After more than a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, is this country up for another battle against an enemy that may or may not live up to the hype?  Airstrikes are effective for only so long, because "shock and awe" has a way of turning into "been there, done that".  And in the Middle East, you don't have to win the war to score points among true believers if you hang around long enough.

Barack Obama became President with a mandate to end the wars that George W. Bush started.  And he has.  But with poll numbers dropping like a rock as his time in the White House is almost done, Obama has chosen to stake his legacy (and risk the security of the nation) on a new war that he might not be able to finish.  Is he, and other war hawks, right about ISIS/ISIL?   Let's hope it doesn't take another 9/11 to find out.