How long? Well according to Usackas, who was the former Foreign Minister of Luthuania, he believes NATO will have to commit to another 30 years of war, though he conceded that somewhere along the line, the 150,000 NATO troops could probably be reduced before then.

Usackas’ comments are certainly an eye-opener, but they are hardly unique. Despite repeated claims of vague “progress” in the war a number of officials from the US and Britain have openly talked about the war lasting another decade or longer.

It seems that nobody really believes in the July 2011 to sometime in 2014 deadline, but it is being presented to the increasingly war-weary public anyhow, because they probably wouldn’t greet admissions that the war is going to last into the middle of the 21st century with good-natured aplomb.

The probe further showed that at least five CIA planes landed in the city and that Lithuania’s own domestic spy agencies prevented border guards from inspecting them. Lithuania’s civilian government denies ever having been informed of any such actions beforehand, and Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius called it a “matter of great concern.”

Rather the requests are said to have gone directly to Lithuania’s State Security Department, which approved the CIA’s requests establishing both a single-cell “interrogation” facility and later a larger site. A former stable on the outskirts of the city served as the CIA’s interrogation center.

The US has declined all comments into this probe so far, but the Lithuanian government seems determined not to allow the activity to damage relations at any rate. The State Security Department’s chief, Povilas Malakauskas, resigned last week in anticipation of the results of the probe.

The Baltic states have taken the conflict in the Caucasus very seriously and have pressured the European Union, of which they are also members, to issue several new demands regarding Russia’s military presence in the breakaway enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Lithuanian defense chief Lieutenant General Valdas Tutkus is encouraging NATO to conduct more military exercises in the Baltics.

Admiral Mullen said the visit was meant to send “a very visible message of reassurance.” He also took the opportunity to once again hit out at Russia for its part in the Georgia conflict saying “certainly what they just did was unacceptable and should not happen again.”

Russia opposed the admission of the Baltic states into NATO, concerned that it would bring US military forces closer to its border. Russia froze all military ties with NATO in August, after the US and other members condemned Russia’s military retaliation in South Ossetia.