The Long War?

I'd like to believe Obama is doing the right thing. But...

The deployment of the support troops to Afghanistan brings the total increase approved by Obama to 34,000. The buildup has raised the number of U.S. troops deployed to the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan above the peak during the Iraq "surge" that President George W. Bush ordered, officials said.

However, it does appear to be in keeping with Obama's Afghan-Pak policy, so I guess we can't exactly be surprised:

The future of Afghanistan is "inextricably linked" to the future of Pakistan, President Obama argued today as he announced a sweeping new policy toward Afghanistan that will include more troops for the country and more aid for its increasingly unstable neighbor.

In stern, forceful language, the president sought to make the case to the American people -- and to the world -- that the security situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan was a shared responsibility that would require a sustained international effort to go after Al Qaeda and to help with economic development in the region.

"For the American people, this border region has become the most dangerous place in the world," he said. "I want the American people to understand that we have a clear and focused goal: to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to prevent their return to either country in the future."

Still, the question seems to be, are we in for "The Long War" after all? And, is that what the American people want, and what we voted for?

The implications of this doctrine are staggering. The very notion of a fifty-year war assumes the consent of the American people, who have yet to hear of the plan, for the next six national elections. The weight of a fifty-year burden will surprise and dismay many in the antiwar movement. Most Americans living today will die before the fifty-year war ends, if it does. Youngsters born and raised today will reach middle age. Unborn generations will bear the tax burden or fight and die in this "irregular warfare."