I enlisted in the Global War on Terror believing we would do things differently than we had in Vietnam – make the world safer, defeat Islamic terrorism and avoid another quagmire.

Instead, I watched Iraq turn into a disaster and Afghanistan become the longest war in U.S. history, costing trillions of dollars with no clear path to victory. We measured progress in kill counts and destroyed assets, but lost sight of the mission. Or maybe the mission changed. Maybe the goal wasn't to win, but to sustain the fight.

Either way, the question is unavoidable: Are we safer now?

The US is sliding back into open-ended conflict

Today, that line sounds like something from a progressive activist or a cynical fiscal hawk. It wasn't. It came from a two-time Medal of Honor recipient. Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler warned nearly a century ago about how war had become a business – how military power and private profit had fused at the country's expense.

His point was simple: When war becomes good business, defense stops being the point.

A century later, the racket endures. After years of promises of "no new wars," the United States is once again sliding........

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