Bush got one thing right when he said it was a different war.
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Who knows? This could be the US's Afghanistan throught the next decade.
Considering the vague and substanceless optimism of all the "new millenium" muck spewed from the media in 2001 went right down the drain with the new millenium's first air strikes and bombings initiated by the US, I'd say there's high chance this millenium(or at least, this century) should be pretty much the same as the last one.
But really, when the tattering and battering gets worse, the US can just call it quits and leave the Middle East in a chaotic situation - so it might be over soon.
And then, after in about twenty years, they'd support another pro-US dictator in that region, and then see him become a threat again, and then will probably merrily march in and bomb the whole region again for the "safety of the world".
It's a classic pattern ain't it?