US Secretary of State Marshall said in 1945 that "A democracy cannot fight a seven-year war." Marshall's judgement was not infallible, but it must be acknowledged by any thinking person that having "democracy" (properly, representation based upon universal adult suffrage) as a government is a liability when waging a war of any length, especially a prolonged one. In this regard, I wonder if it has occurred to anyone else that the phrase "War on Terror" has graduated from the status of a slogan (like "War on Poverty" or "War on Drugs") to become a literal description; that since late 2001 we've conducted not isolated campaigns in either Iraq or Afghanistan, but what amounts to continual belligerency versus effectively the same enemy (viz., those who have crossed borders if necessary to answer the "call to Jihad") in different theatres. It should be noted also that terrorist insurgency is effective particularly, indeed, only, versus representative governments, since its goal is to exhaust the patience of the voting public in the country whence the enemy troops have come.
There's no foreseeable end of this conflict, for there seems an inexhaustible supply of actual and potential jihadists, who desire only the opportunity, such as has existed lately in Iraq and Afghanistan, to fight Islam's reputed foes. We may be reaching a critical juncture, in that we must either change our form of government or concede defeat in the struggle versus terror.
