The Long War Ahead and the Short War Upon Us

John Wohlstetter talked about his book, The Long War Ahead and the Short War Upon Us: Imperfect Civilization, Perfect Barbarism and WMD Terror, published by Discovery Institute Press. He sees two wars with very different challenges. One is the generations long war against radical Islamist ideology, a civilizational war of survival, between imperfect civilization and perfect barbarism. The short war is a war of prevention against a weapons of mass destruction (WMD) catastrophe. He argues that we have failed to invest enough human and material resources to give ourselves the best chance to prevail. The only thing we cannot afford in a war of survival is to lose, and “even a single large-scale WMD event will make any foregone security investment seem cheap by comparison.” Mr. Wohlstetter analyzed the roots of the wars against terrorism that the United States has been engaged in since September 11, 2001, and discussed numerous topics, including the rise of Islamic communities in the West close