US involved for longer time in Iraq than in World War II

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by Jerome Bernard
Thu Nov 23, 12:29 PM ET


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 November 26, 2006 this year, but a few days away, our involvement in Iraq will surpass the length of this historic World War II period," 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 Harbor on December 7, 1941.

The European war ended with Germany's surrender on May 8, 1945, while the Pacific operations ended August 15, 1945 with Japan's surrender.

According to Defense 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, told AFP.

"Expenditures have been lower, there has been no conscription, no draft to bring in the bulk of the society, so the experience of the war has been confined to a small professional army," Wawro 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."

Iraq war critics use Sunday's milestone "to show that this has not been the cakewalk that George W. Bush and his acolytes pretended it would," the historian said.

Americans still remember Bush proclaiming on May 1, 2003 the end of "major combat operations" in Iraq on the flight deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier. Behind him was a banner stating: "Mission Accomplished".

Wawro said that there was a "sense of amazement and bewilderment at the length of this war" and that its supporters said it would be short and not paid for by US taxpayers.

"In fact, it is long, and it is American-financed," said Wawro. "They are pointing out that this war, that was supposed to be a lightning campaign, has become more like World War II, a war of attrition."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061123/pl_afp/usiraqwarwwiihistory_061123172950