Some myths about the War on Terror are just plain silly.

Myth: Kandahar (or some other area) is the key to victory in Afghanistan.

Reality: The United States is being strung along by a series of "key" objectives, none of which has the finality it is portrayed as having. The mistake is entirely the result of American strategists trying to force the conflict to be a conventional military situation. There are numerous "key" areas in the War on Terror and most will be ruled by fundamentalist Muslims for decades at least. There is no sensible way to use a military force to both attack a foreign enemy and support one side in a domestic dispute involving a religion unless you are willing to literally exterminate the enemy.

Myth: The United States has an objectively superior system of government that cannot fail.

Reality: Every people considers their own country and ways to be "superior". This is one of the most consistent lessons of history, and adventures based on national pride are often a warning sign. The founding fathers of America had great insight into the potential pitfalls of a nation but there was no way for them to limit national hubris. The people America is fighting are largely uneducated, primitive people. They are attracted to extreme forms of Islam exactly the same way many of the ancestors of Americans were attracted to extreme forms of Christianity. If a hypothetical "civilized" country had arrived in colonial America and decided to take over on the grounds that burning witches at the stake was "extreme", Americans would have fought back just as the hill people of Afghanistan are fighting.

The vast majority of the "terrorists" we are killing are just simple uneducated hill folk who cannot even conceive what a modern city looks like and know almost nothing about other religions or countries. They are classic primitive tribal people being used as cannon fodder. There is a never ending supply of "terrorists" that will keep replenishing until we start dealing with the sources of the problem. The sources of the problem include a severe lack of rational education in some countries as well as our own attitude that it is okay to kill hundreds of thousands of people who were not involved in 9/11 in order to avenge those attacks.