The United States has not been truly involved in a war since the Japanese surrender on August 14, 1945. However, the United States has involved itself it three sizable campaigns of "police action." These campaigns of "police action," manifest themselves in the Korean War, Vietnam War, and more recently, the Iraq War. The Iraq War and the Vietnam War hold many key similarities. Neither Vietnam nor Iraq directly attacked the United States before America launched its campaign. In both Iraq and Vietnam, the United States drastically underestimated the number of troops needed to successfully complete its objectives. Also, both wars have been characterized by the violent and oppressive relationships between American forces and foreign civilians and soldiers alike. Because the Iraq War and the Vietnam War have such key similarities, policymakers dealing with Iraq can learn pertinent lessons from the American experience in Vietnam.

Terrorism, like communism was for so many years, is now the key threat facing America. Because America now finds itself confronted with this different and never before experienced enemy of terrorism, it must undertake new efforts to develop a long-run working policy to deal with this threat just as it developed a policy to deal with communisim. This task is one which is extremely difficult, and it is the challenge of this generation.

How this policy will take shape over the years depends on the view and perception taken of the post-Cold War world. Several proposals have been made by political thinkers regarding this issue, three of the most prominet of which are Samuel Huntington's The Clash of Civilizations, Jean Bethke Elshtian's book Just War Against Terror, and Barber's book Jihad vs. McWorld.