A Long War Analogy

Former Air Force general Charles F. Wald, a leader in the early air campaigns in Afghanistan, quoted in a Washington Post article about the battle with ISIS:

We’re not going to see an end to this in our lifetime. There isn’t going to be any time where we all of a sudden can declare victory. This is what the world is going to be like for us for a long time.

Wald understands the Long War. It will resemble combating roaches in the tropics - an experience I've had. You engage in a continuous process of killing vermin and hardening targets. You're "winning" if you only see an occasional roach and the roach traps fill up slowly.