CIA head John Brennan: the ‘War on Terror’ will never end

Move over “War on Drugs,” there is now a new perpetual conflict for America and Central Intelligence Agency boss John Brennan took part in a question and answer session at Harvard confirming that the nation’s top intelligence official does not believe the war on terror will ever end.

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The Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) was surprisingly candid regarding the disastrous War on Terror never ending. He attempted to stick to the clichés and talking points, but he was open and honest about one fact: America’s sons and daughters will continue to fight for the “millennia” to come.

Defense One, a military-industrial complex trade magazine that partners with the Council on Foreign Relations, provided some wonderful quotes: “If I look across the board in terms of since 9/11 at terrorist organizations, and if the United States in all of its various forms. In intelligence, military, homeland security, law enforcement, diplomacy. If we were not as engaged against the terrorists, I think we would be facing a horrendous, horrendous environment. Because they would have taken full advantage of the opportunities that they have had across the region.”

Brennan never states that the US ousting of Saddam Hussein created a power vacuum in Iraq or that the US policy of arming of radical Islamic elements in Syria created the force to fill that power vacuum by creating the Islamic State.

“We have worked collectively as a government but also with our international partners very hard to try and root many of them out. Might some of these actions be stimulants to others joining their ranks? Sure, that’s a possibility. I think, though it has taken off of the battlefield a lot more terrorists, than it has put on.”

When questioned on when the War on Terror will end, Brennan said:

“It’s a long war, unfortunately. But it’s been a war that has been in existence for millennia, at the same time—the use of violence for political purposes against noncombatants by either a state actor or a subnational group.

Terrorism has taken many forms over the years. What is more challenging now is, again, the technology that is available to terrorists, the great devastation that can be created by even a handful of folks, and also mass communication that just proliferates all of this activity and incitement and encouragement. So you have an environment now that’s very conducive to that type of propaganda and recruitment efforts, as well as the ability to get materials that are going to kill people. And so this is going to be something, I think, that we’re always going to have to be vigilant about. There is evil in the world and some people just want to kill for the sake of killing…This is something that, whether it’s from this group right now or another group, I think the ability to cause damage and violence and kill will be with us for many years to come.

We just have to not kill our way out of this because that’s not going to address it. We need to stop those attacks that are in train but we also have to address some of those underlying factors and conditions. I’m not saying that poverty causes somebody to become a terrorist, or a lack of governance, but they certainly do allow these terrorist organizations to grow and they take full advantage of those opportunities.”