'Though we're better prepared, enemy far stronger than on 9/11'

President Obama sought to close a chapter in post-Sept. 11 history when he addressed the graduating class at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in May.

“You are the first class to graduate since 9/11 who may not be sent into combat in Iraq or Afghanistan,” Obama told the graduating cadets, who applauded the idea.

But as the anniversary of the 2001 attacks approaches, that vision seems more distant than at any time since terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. U.S. troops are back in the fight in Iraq, and the debate in Washington has shifted from how to end the wars of the past 13 years to whether to start a new one against a more deadly version of the same enemy.

“The whole idea that we’re going to be able to turn the page on the wars of the last decade … that’s gone completely,” said retired Lt. Gen. David Barno, a former U.S. commander in Afghanistan who is now a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, a centrist think tank.

Read the full article at Washington Examiner.