Assuming that Terrorists Operate by Our Logic

He's concerned about whether terrorists "trumpet" a date for our leaving Iraq as a sign of their victory.

I'm concerned that a prolonged American presence in Iraq is being used by terrorist groups as it was in Saudi Arabia before 9/11 as the most effective recruitment tool that they have to attract more angry young Muslims; that each day we spend on foreign soil is one more seed planted that will bear strange fruit in some future terrorist attack on this soil.

But my concern means in his terms that I "don't understand war." And who is being elite now?

We shouldn't assume that announcing that we may be in Iraq for another century is not sufficient motivation for terrorists to fight on. They may see it as the supreme challenge to overcome, and their eyes are already trained on the farther reach of eternity.