I'm John Batchel with my colleague and mentor Gregory Copley.

Gregory, the war on terror, 25 years of it were reporting for me, and you've been involved in the war since the beginning.

It is observation obvious that the war that used to command headlines above the fold in major newspapers no longer does.

In addition, it's not even on the front page in many instances, it's inside.

And we've had many different interpretations such as extremism instead of terror, or the understanding that there is a situation in the Middle

East that's discontinuous with the jihadists of the early days of the war in Pakistan or

Afghanistan. However, here we are 25 years into it and I puzzle whether the governments that were involved in the original war on terror are still engaged in it.

They seem distracted by Europe necessarily.

It's a major war, or by their own economic values and needs, and are no longer concentrating as it was in the early part. But that's my perception

as a reporter, not from the inside. What do you measure is going to be a reaction to this

horror in Australia around the world? Well, it's certainly going to once again galvanize

thoughts on the Islamic terrorism. It's also going to, once again, galvanize thoughts on the Islamic terrorism.

It's also going to galvanize thoughts on the pro-Israel or pro-Palestinian groups

who all think that this is somehow a normal result of the political discourse

starting with October 7th attacks in Israel,

and whether you blame Israel, whether you blame the Palestinians.

But the realities we have to see that terrorism got its name because it's designed to inspire terror.

Terror means that you guide your target audiences

to making irrational decisions

or into political paralysis.

So if you, as President George W. Bush, Bush 43, determined that, you know, you're going to have a war against terror, you're somehow missing the point.

You're not actually identifying the target.

...