War on terror to last decades

If you haven't already figured it out, you should anticipate that the war against terrorists will last for decades.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld gave a speech titled "The Long War" at the National Press Club on Feb. 2. He says the struggle against terrorism will probably be similar to the Cold War. "They [the terrorists] will either succeed in changing our way of life, or we will succeed in changing theirs," Rumsfeld said.

According to Rumsfeld, the three keys to winning the war on terrorism are:

1. Keeping weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of terrorists;

2. defending the American homeland;

3, and helping U.S. allies fight terrorism.

I've seen at least one futurist who predicts that we will be fighting the jihadists for 50 years. He also predicts that the terrorists will untimately lose to new generations of younger, more globalized consumers in the Middle East who yearn for the freedom that other youth have.