Hitch is irritated by the use of the term as a perjorative:
Human history seems to register many more years of conflict than of tranquillity. In one sense, then, it is fatuous to whine that war is endless. We do have certain permanent enemies—the totalitarian state; the nihilist/terrorist cell—with which "peace" is neither possible nor desirable. Acknowledging this, and preparing for it, might give us some advantages in a war that seems destined to last as long as civilization is willing to defend itself.
But the undefined term here is "war". Hitch seems to apply it to all low-level conflicts, where his point is well-taken. But occupying foreign countries with troops seems to me to be of a very different order – and occupations should be time-limited, not because war will ever go away, but because we do not want to become an "endless empire."
The Dish 