@StephanieMoore That's a good point. This was more about understanding a piece of the CHARACTER of war, rather than its definition, but you're spot on. We spent two decades primarily engaged in helping liberated peoples rebuild their fractured societies, in Afghanistan & Iraq, but part of why the American people lost interest and withdrew us was the media focus on the COMBAT OPERATIONS that were far more the exception than the rule, to the exclusion of what was (or was not) actually reconstructing an indigenous, sustainable society.

In Iraq, democracy still stands, even WITHOUT our continued investment, because of the success of all that institution building (and the commitment of the Iraqi people). Even the war against ISIS was largely won because MY war--the #counternarrative fight debunking the #Khawarij strategic vision in traditionalist Islamic terms--with necessarily military force in a SUPPORTING role had built on those Iraqi institutions & determination TO OUT-COMPETE the #Daeshbags for the hearts & minds of the people.

It's complex--but most things in the real world outside the lab are. Defeating #fascism here at home will be as well.

"Public records show that he was raised in a suburb of Dallas and, as recently as a few months ago, had been living with his parents, who are from Kansas. The family home is in a rural area north of Dallas and Fort Worth that is rapidly developing."

#IncelQaida strikes again. If you haven't read Tom Nichols' "Revenge of the Lost Boys" piece from a decade ago, you really should. From across our political spectrum, to #Khawarij attacks around the world, to Americans joining the IDF so they can commit #CrimesAgainstHumanity, to seemingly "random" school shootings, "failure to launch" young men looking for the facade of a higher purpose to justify writing their names into the history books in the blood of innocents are providing terrorism with its cannon fodder.

It's time we face this threat, and figure out how to address it at its root.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/25/us/dallas-ice-facility-shooting-suspect.html

With the exception of one, short-term blip--which was essentially 9/11--during which "Islamists" (more accurately #Khawarij) briefly took the lead, the VAST majority of political extremist violence (a.k.a., "terrorism") in the United States SINCE 1948 has been carried out by right-wing extremists. That's what made them THE FBI'S #1 DOMESTIC TERROR THREAT through most of my career.

Even during the previous high of the civil rights movement, when a substantial number of incidents WERE carried out by left-wing extremists, that was EXCEEDED BY the number of reactionary incidents (lynchings, for example) carried out by right-wing extremists fighting to preserve white, male supremacy.

As usual, #TrumpLies.

https://mitchthelawyer.substack.com/p/the-truth-about-far-right-and-far