Forecast: Ready For The 50-Year War?

With the war in Afghanistan going well, the debate is starting to heat up over the next step in America's war against terrorism. George Bush has warned Americans to be patient, since the campaign will be a long one. But it may require more patience than anyone has realized. White House aides tell TIME they are envisioning a war against terrorism that could last 50 years. "We're taking a long view," says a Bush adviser. Indeed, building intelligence networks to infiltrate and bust up terror cells worldwide can take decades, and terrorism, like crime, can't be eradicated by a single attack. As a model for fashioning a long-term game plan, Bush aides have been looking at old cold-war national-security documents, such as NSC-68, a plan the Truman Administration drafted in 1950 to contain the Soviets.

--By Douglas Waller