The Norwegian worthies who serve on the Nobel Prize Committee have demonstrated dubious judgment in the past.

For example, in 1994, they gave Yasser Arafat a share of the Peace Prize for his "efforts to create peace in the Middle East." Six years later he walked away from the Camp David talks and the second intifada followed.

In 2009, they gave their gold medal to Barack Obama "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples." The prize came less than nine months into his presidency, when even ardent admirers would have been hard-pressed to cite achievements.

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Addressing Congress nine days after Sept. 11, President George W. Bush declared: "Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there." He added: "It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated."

A dozen years later, President Barack Obama announced that what had become known as the Global War on Terror "like all wars, must end. That's what history advises."

History doesn't actually advise, though it can reveal patterns – and Mr. Obama drew the wrong one. Wars against an enemy driven by an ideology of conquest rarely end until that enemy is decisively defeated or abandons its demands.

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Does the name, Dmitry Medvedev ring a bell? If not, let me remind you. He was president of Russia from 2008 to 2012.

Perhaps you'll recall that, in 2012, President Obama told him that their disagreement over American missile defense in Europe could be resolved.

On a hot mic, Mr. Obama added: "This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility."

Mr. Medvedev replied that he would "transmit this information to Vladimir."

Vladimir Putin was then Russia's prime minister so, constitutionally, Mr. Medvedev was his boss. But Mr. Putin had preceded him as president and would succeed him as president. There was never any question about who was the top dog and who the lap dog.

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Thomas Jefferson was not enthusiastic about either foreign wars or military spending. But he sent the nascent U.S. Navy to the shores of Tripoli because he understood that paying tribute to the Barbary pirates was more expensive than fighting them.

The Barbary pirates were jihadis on the Mediterranean coast of North Africa who seized American merchant ships and took their sailors hostage. Today, the rulers of Iran, modern jihadis, have been attempting to hold the global economy hostage.

A fifth of the world's seaborne oil used to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. The theocrats have laid claim to that international waterway, demanding tribute from ships that pass through.

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I remember the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. But perhaps you do not. So let me tell you what happened, and what should have been learned.

It was a perfect late summer morning in Washington; in the 70s, no humidity. I was in my office, television tuned to a news channel.

A little before 9 a.m., there were live reports that American Airlines Flight 11 had struck the World Trade Center in New York City minutes earlier. The plane had flown through a clear blue sky into the North Tower. Flames and smoke were billowing from a hole between the 93rd and 99th floors.

My phone rang. "Accident or terrorism?" asked a friend and former Pentagon official. I said I hoped it was an accident.

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