After reading the article, twice, and finding no reference to a cessation of fire-fighting efforts -- which doesn't sound like firefighters anyway, and I know quite a few -- the light dawns: this is a simile for the war in Iraq.

To speculate on the possible answer to your leading question, it will depend on how many over how long a time, and if we get any appreciable return on the investment, in the nature of even the promise of a more stable region.

I have a question for you, now, more of a rhetorical nature. Eventually even a wildfire runs out of things to burn or encounters rain or snow, and so ends. What if this battle goes on and on and on? Where is the line? At what point, if this becomes Palestine all over again, do we throw in the towel, send off the sympathy cards and go home? Is that possibility even on the clipboard?

Regards--
Mary Anne