Former US President George W. Bush will always be remembered for the War on Terrorism, a war he brought America and the rest of his allies on after the September 11 attacks. Whether what it brought was good or bad is still is for debate and probably will never be answered unless it’s in hindsight. The question is, when will we be starting to look at it on hindsight? Where are we in the War on Terror? Are we winning? What does winning look like? When will it end?

Much of these questions were brought about by the fact that the end was never defined to us by those who propagated it. Up to now we don’t know what the final goal is and where we are right now in our quest to reach it. If you ask people down the street what successes of the War on Terror they know of they would probably mention Saddam Hussein’s capture and subsequent execution. This is exactly the convoluted thinking we are in right now. The War on Terror should not be equated with the War in Iraq but the two have been so intertwined that everybody has been confused.

Since Bush left office, things became clearer in the sense that it is clear that we do not know where we are. The scheduled pull out from Iraq shows that Iraq is not the be all and end all of the War on Terror. While it is welcomed that things in Iraq are being cleaned up, we still need to know what the ending should look like. If they do not define it soon, people will soon be thinking that the goal is actually to totally eradicate evil in this world which would mean that there is no end save for Judgment Day.

The question in the beginning of the war was that the war is not properly defined. In fact, at that time, Terrorism itself was not defined. So if you are confused about things, don’t worry because it has always been confusing from the beginning. Where are we in the War on Terror? I can tell you, but it wouldn’t do much help.