The winds of war are here. The storm is spreading. It’s growing rapidly in intensity. Just this week, for example, the Syrian civil war has spilled over into two neighboring countries.

In Iraq, it has reignited battles in the two major cities where American forces had won the bloodiest and most pivotal battles of the entire Iraqi war — Fallujah and Ramadi.

These two critical cities are just 36 and 64 miles from Baghdad, respectively. Their fall spells possible disaster for the entire country, the entire region, and the entire legacy of America’s longest wars in history. And yet, that’s precisely what seems to be happening right there, right now.

In Lebanon, the Syrian civil war has also burst onto the scene with new bomb attacks just this week, helping to plunge the country deeper into what could soon be its own second civil war of modern times.

The last Lebanese civil war lasted FIFTEEN years, claiming an estimated 120,000 fatalities … causing a mass exodus of one million people … dragging Israel plus other foreign powers into the conflict. This one could be equally bad, or worse.

Meanwhile, terror, revolution, and civil war are spreading to the Sudan, Somalia, West Africa … the Caucuses, Pakistan and South Asia … the Philippines and even Western China.

Is The War on Terror Lost?

Yes, America’s drone war has notched many successes. Yes, Osama bin Laden is dead and the U.S. has won key battles. But it looks like the United States, NATO — and the entire community of nations — may be losing the war.

Instead of surgically removing the cancer, we have caused it to spread — regionally and globally.

Like cutting up a starfish into pieces, instead of killing one animal (al-Qaeda), we’ve seeded the growth of dozens of al-Qaeda affiliates, spinoffs and successors …

• Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), headquartered in Yemen, probably stronger in many respects than bin Laden’s core organization at its peak, and the primary current concern of U.S. strategists …

• Al Shabab, recognized by al-Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahari as one of its leading affiliates in Africa, now launching attacks far beyond its regional borders …

• Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), now merged with Jabhat Al Nusra of Syria, forming a new, more potent organization, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) — the forces now seeking to take over Fallujah and Ramadi, those two pivotal cities in Iraq …

• Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), now coordinating activities with two new violent Islamist groups in Mali — Ansur al Din and the Movement for Unity and Jihad West Africa …

• Islamic Emirate of the Caucuses (IEC), behind the recent bombings in Volgograd, Russia, in what appears to be a major crescendo of attacks leading up to the Winter Olympics in Sochi …

Just to mention the most prominent!

Worse, in addition to a SPREAD of the cancer, we have witnessed a dramatic ESCALATION in the conflict.

What was once just a phenomenon of isolated incidents of terror has now been transformed into outright armed warfare.

What was once mostly limited to dreams of revolution has now resulted in the dramatic overthrow of once-powerful governments.

What was once primarily a distant threat of turmoil has now become a series of collapsed, or collapsing, states..

Egypt, once a bedrock of stability and the centerpiece of the U.S. policy in the region, is in the late stages of chaos.

Libya, where U.S. forces claimed a “great victory,” is already a collapsed state, overrun by militias beyond any government’s control.

Much of North, West and East Africa, mostly under control prior to the Libyan war, is now mostly out of control.

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