No doubt the Afghan war will continue and involvement in Pakistan through drones escalate. Obama faces the huge problem that taking territory and holding it will involve more casualties than just using airstrikes and clearing areas only to have them re-occupied.
The power of imperial ideologues and the military industrial complex is greater in the U.S. than that of the people it would seem but over time the tide may change.. The U.S. will find itself further isolated as more countries find that it is political suicide to continue supporting a war that has large majorities against it. As the poll shows Democrats are strongly against both interventions and this could cause trouble for Obama eventually although he can always claim to be better than the Republicans on the issue!

Actually the author is correct Pipes has come ouf in public and supported an Ahmadinejad victory. How he can square this with supporting the MEK and demonstrations and greater boldness in criticising the crackdown is a bit difficult to fathom. But then I never taught at Harvard!

http://watchingthewatchers.org/article/20554/dani...

Where is the reference to show that Daniel Pipes supports an Ahmadinejad victory? The news article below has him at an MEK (or MKO)--a Marxist ant-Iranian govt. group on the US terror list-- rally in Paris cheering on the demonstrators in Iran and blasting Ahmadinejad and suggesting that the US should take a much bolder stance in supporting the opposition.
The MKO has been taken off the terror list in Europe and Pipes wants the same thing done in the US and hopes that the group can be used to destabilise or help overthrow the Iranian govt.

http://www.danielpipes.org/6422/american-boldness...