[rayiner]

You're absolutely right that it's an open-ended commitment. And whether it's worth it--probably not to the degree we've spent money and lives on it, and distorted our internal politics in response to it. But I think the trends out there are deeply troubling. In 100 years, I want countries like the one my family is from to be like California, not Saudi Arabia. I think that would be good for them, but also good for us. But thanks to radical Islamists, the world is moving in the wrong direction. And if operations like ISIS can acquire and hold territory in countries that are theoretically friendly to the West, I think those are the kind of brush-fires that Western countries should undertake an open-ended commitment to putting out.