So why is it that almost a decade later al-Qaeda is still making headlines and dictating at least one ongoing war in Afghanistan? Probably the biggest reason is that we can’t catch the guy who is in charge. 8 years after 9/11, Osama bin Laden is still making messages for the Internet, making threats, and recently even tried to make ally-friends with the EU, asking them to join him in rebuking and opposing the United States.

Right. Well, while I doubt we are in much danger of losing the EU to an al-Qaeda alliance, it’s hard to look at the war in Afghanistan and the ongoing struggle with al-Qaeda as successful.

"We know that al Qaeda and its extremist allies threaten us from different corners of the globe -- from Pakistan but also from East Africa and Southeast Asia; from Europe and the Gulf. And that's why we're applying focused and relentless pressure on al Qaeda," said Obama in at the National Counterterrorism Center. Reuters notes that he cited intelligence-sharing, disrupting terrorism financing, and attacking al Qaeda leadership.

Forgive me for playing the cynic here, but isn’t that what we’ve been up to for the past 8 years? And are you really going to use the word “relentless” Obama? Where did that come from? That tells me that for the foreseeable and unforeseeable future we will be pursing an enemy who exists largely as a ghost with everything we’ve got.

I do appreciate that Obama retains a small piece of humor in the whole endeavor, referring to the National Counterterrorism Center as “the bat cave.” He also claimed that we are making progress in battling al Qaeda and other extremists. We may be making some kind of minimal progress in Afghanistan, as the elections happened and the Taliban is no longer in power, but apart from a few scattered reports of captured al Qaeda leaders or operatives, I haven’t heard much to make me hopeful.

"It should now be clear -- the United States and our partners have sent an unmistakable message: We will target al Qaeda wherever they take root; we will not yield in our pursuit; and we are developing the capacity and the cooperation to deny a safe haven to any who threaten America and its allies."

Unmistakable and relentless- two words that mean more troops in an ongoing war that has no defined battlelines or even idea of what it would look like when we are done- I mean, what’s the eventual goal of the “war on terror?” To kill everyone who doesn’t like us? Or to get everyone in the world to like us?
If it’s to kill everyone who doesn’t like us, well, that’s not going to happen. We can’t even find the people who don’t like us, let alone kill them all- wait, wasn’t that the name of an 80’s album from an angry metal band real popular with teenage boys?

And if the eventual goal is to have everyone in the world like the United States, well, that’s not happening either- not if our plan is to increase troop levels and do more attacks. Shift the military budget to an aid budget and you’ll have legions of admirers- maybe we should go for unmistakable and relentless kindness…