WASHINGTON, Nov 23: The US involvement in Iraq will pass another sad milestone on Sunday, when it overtakes the length of America's engagement in World War II.
While the two wars are far apart in character -- and in their death tolls -- the Iraq campaign has become a symbol of the pitfalls of the new style of conflict.
World War II ended for Americans after 1,348 days. US soldiers facing a still largely unknown enemy in Iraq do not know when their country will leave, more than three years after the US-led invasion.
American politicians have not failed to note the symbolism.
“I remember the (World War II) period well,” Senator John Warner, Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services committee, who served as a sailor during the war, said at a hearing last week on Iraq.
“I note that on Nov 26 this year, but a few days away, our involvement in Iraq will surpass the length of this historic World War II period,” Senator Warner said.
The committee's top Democrat, Senator Carl Levin, pointed to the Iraq war's length as he pushed for a phased withdrawal of US troops within four to six months.
“We are three and one-half years into a conflict which has already lasted longer than the Korean conflict and almost as long as World War II. We should put the responsibility for Iraq's future squarely where it belongs: on the Iraqis. We cannot save the Iraqis from themselves,” Levin said.
America's involvement in World War II started with Japan's air raid on US Navy ships in Pearl Harbour on December 7, 1941.
According to Defence Department figures, more than 2,860 US soldiers have died in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion. More than 21,000 have been wounded, according to the independent website Iraq Coalition Casualties.
The grim figures do not compare with the US military casualties in World War II, when 406,000 American soldiers died and 671,000 were wounded, according to official US statistics.
“It is an entirely different affair, because it is the same length of time but a far smaller level of national effort,” Geoffrey Wawro, a history professor at the University of North Texas, said.
During World War II, Americans were forced to tighten their belts, while US President George W. Bush has pursued his tax-slashing policy during the Iraq war, he said.
“During the Second World War, you would have had tax increases, you would have had austerity, you would have had rationing, and so the experience of war would have been deeply felt,” Wawro said. “Here, it is very superficially felt.”—AFP
