By Mohammed Rizwan and Raheel Raza

As we prepare to navigate the almost intersecting anniversaries of 9/11 and October 7, it feels like we have been on this roundabout for 23 years. ISIS-Hamas-Hezbollah-Houthi terrorism — including the killing of six Israeli hostages this past week — has been like a gruesome, never-ending horror show on loop.

The world is where it is after a grinding 23-year slog that saw a 20-year-long Afghanistan war, a bloody conflict in Iraq, another four years of having to endure ISIS terror in Iraq as well as in Syria, and a permanent low-intensity sideshow of Houthi violence in the Red Sea area. During all of this, Hezbollah (Iran’s proxy in Lebanon) kept reminding us not to count it out.