Meanwhile, in Afghanistan...

The war in Afghanistan, like the one in Iraq, will apparently last forever-

British troops could remain in Afghanistan for more than the 38 years it took them to pull out of Northern Ireland. That is the bleak assessment by Army commanders on the ground in Helmand province.

In an interview with The Observer at HQ in the provincial capital Lashkar Gah, Brigadier John Lorimer, commander of UK forces in Helmand, said: 'If you look at the insurgency then it could take maybe 10 years. Counter-narcotics, it's 30 years. If you're looking at governance and so on, it looks a little longer. If you look at other counter-insurgency operations over the last 100 years then it has taken time.'

His scenario is the starkest assessment yet from a senior officer tasked with defeating the Taliban, tackling the heroin trade and rebuilding the war-ravaged country...

When Ted Koppel called this "our children's children's war", he wasn't kidding, was he?

President Bush, meanwhile, claims he understands the situation there better than Afghan President Hamid Karzai, basically stating Karzai's acknowledgment of the reality in his country is wrong. Shoot me.