Another miserable milestone for Bush's war

[im10ashus]

A miserable milestone was passed the other day. America's (and Britain's) disastrous war in Iraq has now lasted longer than the US involvement in the Second World War. Yes, this conflict has outlasted a war that ended with total victory over Nazi Germany. Hitler declared war on the US on 11 December 1941. Exactly 1,244 days later, on 7 May 1945, Germany surrendered. The US invaded Iraq on 19 March 2003, and this weekend it is 1,267 days later, with no end in sight.

Sticklers among you will have noted that the interval between the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Japanese surrender on 2 September, 1945 was 1,364 days. But even that record will tumble at the start of December. And if you do measure Iraq against the longer American war with Japan, the contrast is even starker. Victory in the Pacific was even more conclusive than in Europe. It produced no post-war entanglement with the Soviets and no Berlin airlift. The Iraq war unfolded the other way round: Baghdad fell barely three weeks after the invasion. Since then, however, it's been downhill all the way.

Yes, US casualties have been lighter, some 2,620 dead at the latest count, and four times as many seriously wounded. Adjust for respective populations, and Israel's loss of around 116 soldiers in the Lebanon war translates into 5,800 US dead in barely a month. As for Iraqi civilians, more of them are getting killed per month than all the American troops lost since the very start of the war.

But forget the statistics,the endless terror alerts, the war in Lebanon and the looming showdown with Iran. Iraq is the issue that America keeps returning to. It haunts George Bush and - barring Democratic screw-ups - it will probably send his Republican party to defeat in the mid-term elections this November.

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[ClintonTyree]

1. We all know how the war with Japan ended.........

or at least the events that lead to the end of the war. Let's hope bush* doesn't decide to take that route. It would hasten the rapture though. :eyes:

[H2O Man]

2. Hmmmm .....

Looks like The Decider has decided that perpetual war for perpetual peace is the new manifest destiny.

[Botany]

3. And not counting Japan's war in Manchuria (1937) we are now getting

almost as long as all of WW II. Sept. 1 1939 Hitler invades Poland to August ??? 1945 when Japan
surrendered. A total of 6 years.

If this "war" started on Sept 11 2001 and it is now just about Sept. 2006 that is a total of 5 years
bush says he is not leaving Iraq as long as he is president ..... that will be a total of 7 + years.

and what do we have to show for it?

Iraq, Civil War
Kurds, being bombed by Turkey from F-16s & shelled by Iran inside Iraqi borders
Lebanon, Hezbahllah now one of the strongest if not the strongest political force in Lebanon
Israel, Egged them on to attack Lebanon w/ disastrous results
Iraq, A large part of it will become a Shi ite Theocracy aliened w/ Iran and a nice "home"
for anti western terrorists
Iran, After rejecting direct talks with them in 2001, 2002, & 2003 a much more radical
leadership has come to power, they are now seen as stronger to both their friends and enemies in the
region, and now they are trying to build a "bomb"
Iraq, At least 100,000 dead, no water, spotty electricity, no jobs, and the upper and middle
class fleeing the country
Gaza Strip (Palestine), After having "democratic" elections, Hamas the most anti Israel and anti
western group now is in charge.
Afghanistan, World's largest producer of opium for heroin, the Taliban is now back in charge of much
of the country, U.S. and allied forces coming under increasingly sophisticated attacks from techniques
that were learned by sending fighters to Iraq
England, bush ruined a 13 month investigation into what could have been REAL TERRORISTS by
outing the operation for political reasons
V. Plame, A CIA agent and her front company was outed and made useless by the bush admin
so they can no longer track REAL WMDs
bin Laden, Still alive and free.


If the democrats do not kick republican ass this fall when "they" bring up the war on terror
then they should be ashamed.

[im10ashus]

5. Perpetual war.

That's what we can look forward to.

[ovidsen]

4. Chimp's decisiveness bears fruit. Not. n/t