Is the war on Islamist terror working? In 1952 a similar inquiry was made of the First Cold War: are we winning? In this chapter we run an interim audit and argue that declarations of victory, as in the 1950s, are premature but that the United States is winning. At the very least the war has been instrumental in denying further triumphs to the enemy. The US has not yet won the war on terror, but the manner and method of its fighting has made future 9/11s (and worse) less likely, not more. For this reason of fundamental utility, the next administrations – Democratic or Republican – will tweak but not transform the design George W. Bush put in place. As with the First, the Second Cold War commands a domestic consensus that his successors will work with and within.