By TOM RAUM
WASHINGTON Nov 26, 2006 (AP)— The war in Iraq has now
lasted longer than the U.S. involvement in the war that President
Bush's father fought in, World War II. As of Sunday, the conflict
in Iraq has raged for three years and just over eight months.
Only the Vietnam War (eight years, five months), the Revolutionary
War (six years, nine months), and the Civil War (four years),
have engaged America longer.
Fighting in Afghanistan, which may or may not be a full-fledged
war depending on who is keeping track, has gone on for five
years, one month. It continues as the ousted Taliban resurges
and the central government is challenged.
Bush says he still is undecided whether to start bringing
U.S. troops home from Iraq or add to the 140,000 there now.
He is awaiting the conclusions of several top-to-bottom studies,
including a military review by Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Expected soon, too, are recommendations from an outside blue-ribbon
commission headed by former Secretary of State James Baker,
a Republican close to the Bush family, and former Rep. Lee
Hamilton, an Indiana Democrat who was one of the leaders of
the Sept. 11 commission.
The Iraq war began on March 19, 2003, with the U.S. bombing
of Baghdad. On May 1, 2003, Bush famously declared major combat
operations over, the pronouncement coming in a speech aboard
an aircraft carrier emblazoned with a "Mission Accomplished" banner.
Yet the fighting has dragged on, and most of the 2,800-plus
U.S. military deaths have occurred after Bush suggested an
end to what he called the Iraq front in the global fight against
terrorism.
Politicians in both parties blame the increasingly unpopular
war for GOP losses on Capitol Hill in the November elections
that handed control of the House and Senate to Democrats.
Twice before in the last half-century have presidents Harry
S. Truman in Korea and Lyndon B. Johnson in Vietnam been crippled
politically by prolonged and unpopular wars.
Bush last week visited Vietnam for the first time, attending
a summit of Asian and Pacific Rim nations. Asked if the Vietnam
war held any messages for U.S. policy in Iraq, Bush said it
showed that "we'll succeed unless we quit."
John Mueller, an Ohio State University political scientist
who wrote the book "War, Presidents and Public Opinion," said
Americans soured on Iraq after "doing a rough cost-benefit
analysis. They say, `What's it worth to us and how much is
it costing us?'"
By that standard, Americans were willing to abandon the Iraq
war long before they turned against the war in Vietnam, Mueller
suggested. "So that, for example, when more than 2,000
Americans had died in Iraq, support lowered. It took 20,000
deaths in Vietnam to lower support for that war to the same
level," he said.
In the casualty count, the Civil War was the most lethal,
with military deaths of the North and South combined totaling
at least 620,000. By comparison, the total for World War II
was roughly 406,000; Vietnam, 58,000; Korea, 37,000; World
War I, 116,000.
The outgoing Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services
Committee, Sen. John Warner of Virginia, a veteran of World
War II and a former Navy secretary, noted solemnly at a recent
hearing of his committee that Sunday would mark the day when
U.S. was involved longer in the Iraq war than it had been in
World War II.
Yet the October 2002 congressional resolution that authorized
the Iraq war "addressed the Iraq of Saddam Hussein, which
is now gone, and no more a threat to us," Warner said.
While the United States is helping the Iraq's current government
to assume the full reins of sovereignty, "we need to revise
(our) strategy to achieve that goal," Warner said.
U.S. involvement in the Iraq war has outlasted that of the
Korean War (three years, one month); the War of 1812 (two years,
six months); the U.S.-Mexican War (one year, 10 months); World
War I (one year, seven months); the Spanish American War (eight
months); and the first Persian Gulf War (one and a half months).
Democrats and Republicans are divided about what to do next
in Iraq.
Many Democrats and some Republicans have called for a phased
withdrawal. Some lawmakers, including Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.,
a 2008 presidential hopeful, are urging that more U.S. troops
be sent to help stabilize Iraq.
Sen. Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who will be the next
chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, argues for
beginning to bring troops home soon. "We should put the
responsibility for Iraq's future squarely where it belongs,
on the Iraqis," Levin said. "We cannot save the Iraqis
from themselves."
Experts of various political stripes have suggested that the
options are few.
"No mix of options for U.S. action can provide a convincing
plan for 'victory' in Iraq," said Anthony Cordesman, an
Iraq analyst at the Center for Strategic and International
Studies. "The initiative has passed into Iraqi hands."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(In
accordance with Title
17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without
profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving
the included information for research and educational purposes.
BadConcress.com has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator
of this article nor is BadCongress.com endorsed or sponsored
by the originator.)
|
