The War in Iraq: 1,760 Days and Counting
THIS IS FROM ROBERT HIGGS AT THE INDEPENDENT INSTITUTUTE
On October 19, 2001, in speaking about the new government controls and heightened surveillance already being clamped on the American people in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, Vice President Dick Cheney said that the new war “may never end. At least not in our lifetime. . . . The way I think of it is, it’s a new normalcy.” We should have taken his grim forecast more seriously.
The U.S. attack on and occupation of Iraq, represented by the Bush administration as a critical element in the larger Global War on Terror, began nearly five years ago, and it shows no signs of ending soon. Indeed, if John McCain is elected president and (with help from his successors) carries out the not-so-veiled threat to keep U.S. troops in Iraq for a hundred years, then we can confidently expect that the war will not end in our lifetime. Such a prospect is so seemingly preposterous, however, that one’s mind does not readily assimilate it.
It is difficult enough to absorb the reality that the United States has now been at war against the Iraqis for almost five years. An engagement sold to the public as a “cakewalk” and represented just six weeks after it began as a “mission accomplished” has now (as I write) continued for 1,760 days. Compare this duration with the time the United States was formally engaged in World War I (589 days) or World War II (1,365 days). In the 1940s, the U.S. forces (with important allies, to be sure) defeated two major economic and military powers in a globe-circling war in less time than the U.S. forces have been engaged in Iraq.
John,
This guy hardly sounds independent while mouthing every Democrat talking point, even Keith Olbermann.
He is correct about the two parties self serving arrogance however. Other than that, I think this article offers nothing new in the way of creative ideas.
For the record, as President, I would favor an aggressive plan to get out of Iraq, depending on the “situation on the ground”. Given the sacrifices made by our troops, the enormous costs we have incurred financially, and the trust that many Iraqis put in the US, it would certainly be foolish to simply pull out. I cannot envision US troops staying much more that a two years from January 2009, and that is the outside estimate.
At some point, Iraqis must claim their own nation for themselves. I believe that they are a much more secular nation than the other Muslim states. Once they wake up and see a future, they will respond. The reality of Saddam being gone will take hold. As the violence continues to decline, it will be apparent to all of them how much better life can finally be. There will be no rush to go backwards.
After 5 years of torture there’s no telling what McCain is capable of. Of course most DC politicians already have great “acting skills”.
Of course the best actors may have come from the “method” school of acting. James Dean, Maralyn Monroe, ect… But this lead to insanity and “compartmentalization”. They “lived” the role at least when the cameras were on.