Michael Totten:
“Hardly anyone wants to think about the monumental size of this task or how long it will take. The illusion that the United States just needs to win in Afghanistan and everything will be fine is comforting, to be sure, but it is an illusion. Winning the war in Iraq won’t be enough either, nor will permanently preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons or resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict. The war may end somewhere with American troops on the ground, or, like the Cold War, it might not. No one can possibly foresee what event will actually put a stop to this war in the end. It is distant and unknowable. The world will change before we can even imagine what the final chapter might look like.”
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If this conflict indeed will continue for decades more, then a withdrawal and breather for a few years will be a minor interruption.

Obama will be President for four or eight years. I foresee that the USA will withdraw most of its military forces from Iraq and Afghanistan during the first two or three years of Obama’s Administration.

Then we’ll see what will happen, and we’ll prepare ourselves for the next round, whereever and whatever it will be. The next round for the USA might be in Algeria or in Indonesia. Maybe it will be in Lebanon and Israel. Time will tell.

In the meantime, while we are taking our breather, we can leave it up to the Moslems to murder mostly each other for a few years. And in the meantime, the gradual spread of globalization, communication and education will undermine the spirit, attraction and motivation of radical Moslems.

And in the meantime, some other countries might decide they should align themselves to fight along the USA in the next round.

I myself think the USA ought to continue fighting without interruption, but it is not to be. The US population does not have the will or persistence to continue more than two or three years longer right now. Let’s hope that our people’s wisdom are providing a wise course correction for the long run.