End of “Forever War” Watch, Columbus Day Weekend Edition

Last year President Obama called for the end of the 2001 AUMF conflict and wagged his finger at people who thought continued statutory authority was needed to meet the continuing and morphing Islamic terrorist threats.  You know the lines.  “I will not sign laws designed to expand this [2001 AUMF] mandate further,” and “this war, like all wars, must end.”  Since the President’s speech many others have mapped out ways to end “the Forever War.” The rise of the Islamic State, the U.S. campaign against it, and the broad extension of the 2001 AUMF to legally justify the campaign, all appear to have dashed the realistic likelihood of ending the “Forever War” any time soon.  How long will the campaign take?  Within the administration, the talking point appears to be “long-term.” Secretary of Defense Hagel, Saturday, on the campaign against the Islamic State: “It is a long-term effort. This is difficult, it is complicated. It’s going to require many factors.” National Security Advisor Susan Rice, yesterday, on the same matter:

We are in the midst, in the early stages, as you-- acknowledged, of what is going to be, as President Obama said, a long-term effort. Let's recall what it is we're trying to do. We're trying over time to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL and prevent it from having permanent safe haven, from which it can conduct terrorist attacks against us or our partners in the region from the territory of Iraq or Syria. Now this is going to take time. Our efforts have various different lines of effort, as we've called them. On the one hand, we're trying to build up the capacity of the Iraqis, which means the Iraqi army, the Kurds, the peshmerga inside of Iraq who have over years, atrophied. They've become more sectarian. They've become less skilled in their ability to take the fight to ISIL. . . . So this is going to take time. Our air campaign is off to a strong start and we've seen very important successes in places like Mosul Dam, Sinjar Mountain, where we were able to rescue many tens of thousands of civilians at risk. And this is going to take time. So it can't be judged by merely what happens in one particular town or in one particular region. This is going to take time and the American people need to understand that our aim here is long-term degradation and building the capacity of our partners.