Glenn Greenwald has a fascinating piece in The Intercept making the case that the "war on terrorism" is going to be "endless," as he puts it. From a decade to twenty years to Leon Panetta's recent pronouncement that "I think we're looking at kind of a thirty years war," Greenwald painstakingly documents statements by Obama administration officials essentially showing that they see the war as having no geographic or temporal limit. And that's not the worst of it: he goes on to show that not only Panetta but also the person "likely to be the next American president" is projecting our current Middle East intervention into the indefinite future.

Whether Hillary Clinton is "likely" to occupy the White House is debatable, but it's hard to argue with Greenwald's conclusion. "At this point," he writes,

"It is literally inconceivable to imagine the U.S. not at war. It would be shocking if that happened in our lifetime. US officials are now all but openly saying this. 'Endless War' is not dramatic rhetorical license but a precise description of America's foreign policy."