Fighting the Long War

In its new strategy "Fighting the Long War -- Military Strategy for the War on Terrorism", the military uses historical analogies to describe the struggle:

It holds up the 1930s as an example of how not to respond to extremism, noting Europe's appeasement of German dictator Adolf Hitler. "The consequences of inaction" in the 1930s, the briefing says, "Lives lost: 300,000; 70 million worldwide. ... War expenditures: $3.1 trillion ... 38 percent of GDP per year. [The Pentagon today is spending 3.8 percent of U.S. GDP.] U.S. reconstruction expenditures: $90 billion over four years."

Though it hesitates to compare the fight to the war on communism:

"We cannot discredit all of Islam as we did with communism," the document says. "It is a divine religion. We can only discredit the violent extremist."