The following was put in by my lonesome as a comment at GatewayPundit's on the post about the AP and how the war in Iraq has taken so long! Longer than WWII! Ahhhhh... yes... and so it goes, thusly, a spelling error cleaned up:
Well, lets see, from my earlier review of war lengths that the Nation has been involved in and the handy-dandy days between dates calculator we can see that on 27 NOV 2006 we are 1,508 days since the initial authorization of the use of force against Iraq! Take off 202 days until we actually rendered the Iraqi Military useless and you have 1,306 days since the end of hostilities.Not as link festooned as I normally do so that it could be posted in something less than a diurnal period.
How does this stack up?
From start of the American Revolutionary War to the signing of the final Peace Treaty was 3,192 days, although the last British forces to leave had been at the 3,142 day mark. Mind you the actual ratification of the Constitution took until 5,068 days after the first shots rang out in hostility.
Ah, for the grand America that could get through THAT to be born!
We have PASSED the mark for the end of the First Barbary War! But still a few months away for the Second to end. Yes, more sticktoitiveness than a minor skirmish in a far off land against Islamic Pirates trying to exact tribute from the US! Those were short, harsh campaigns that never solved the problem... a bad Peace although they did stop bothering the US...
Still quite some ways from the time it took the Northwest Indian Wars to be brought to a semi-successful end: 3,846 days. And the treaties to end it were not so hot for the losers of that war.
Blasted past the War of 1812 and the Quasi-War long ago, so we are past those minor tussle times for ability to 'stick to the mission'. That said the US was a 'side-show' for the British, although they did burn down Washington, DC! We should have rebuilt that elsewhere...
And since note was made elsewhere about the casualties in the Mexican-American War, let it be known that little skirmishing only involved about 110,000 troops over 649 days. But that Republic was one without the professional Armed Forces setup of today. Can't blame them for lots of deaths as that was what war was about then. A short, harsh, conflict that didn't solve the problem...
We will slowly gain on the final surrender of the last Confederacy unit at 1,667 days, for that is the length of the US Civil War from start to last unit surrendering. Do note that the 'Reconstruction Era' and getting some sovereignty back to the Confederate States and then helping to actually rebuild in the face of 'Jim Crow' and segregation would take a century.
The continuous warfare against the Native American population in the US only took 27,520 days to do, but it was a 'low intensity conflict'. Like Iraq.
And the Philippine-American War only took 1,181 days to finish... but the insurgency went on until 1913 and Congress didn't think things were safe to hand back until 1916. A mere 6,415 days until we even *looked* at local sovereignty in-full and 3 years after the last insurgents had finally been found and put down. We actually did have to retake the place during WWII, and the Filipinos were *glad* to have us back as the Imperial Japanese demonstrated that there are, indeed, worse things in the world than the US.
The Boxer Rebellion only took 1,091 days for a coalition force to get done and the Peace imposed was awful. Short, harsh and a bad peace. That is very much a theme in warfare....
The US involvement to turn the tide to Armistice in WWI was only 584 days! The final Peace Treaty, which really did mess things up badly for future generations, was signed 2,300 days after the US involvement started. Short, harsh, and a bad set of Peace Treaties, leaving us with deep problems to this very day.
WWII from US entry to last Japanese surrender to China was 1,372 days. The US would keep a force stationed in Japan for another decade to ensure that they really got the hang of 'representative democracy'. So many folks forget that point and similar time spent in West Germany for same.
The Cold War took 15,889 days to finally go away, but the expenditure in time, effort, manpower and deaths in various conflicts, large and small, was a steady dripping on the National forehead. Somehow we got through that until the USSR disintegrated. From the inside. We did our part to hold the USSR in check, but only those inside the system could *end it*.
Korean war until the 'cease-fire': 1,128 days. Note that this war is NOT OVER and can be counted as being an 'active war' although not much goes on there, until recently. North Korea still thinks it is at war... 20,609 days after it started.
Viet Nam war from generally acknowledged start date under Eisenhower (though Truman had similar 'advisors' in there before that) to end: 6,999 days. And to reach that goal of 50,000 US dead at the rate we are going in Iraq will take 30-40 more years. Yes, the war dead are 'such a drain on the US' unlike the Mexican-American War or the Philippine-American War and counter-insurgency or any war the US has been involved in previously. And that running let three governments fall to Communism in the region and accrued millions dead due to America's running. At 8% of US GDP that was sustainable and the US was *still* outgrowing and outcompeting the rest of the world economically. The USSR was devoting 15-20% of their GDP to that conflict and their Nation was crumbling internally. US withdrawal let them know they could 'beat the US' at proxy war, and tried to get us involved in Afghanistan... which helped give rise to our current enemies...
The 1991 Gulf war: 209 days. And a horrible 'cease-fire' agreement that solved *nothing* and which diplomats booted around to no end and no agreement for over a decade. And 300,000 Shia dead who believed the US would step in to help them defeat Saddam because they had no capability to do so then.
Only 1,468 days from 9/11 to Constitutionally elected Parliament in Afghanistan! Hey! Iraq beat that at 1,161 days! And both have counter-insurgency campaigns because they are facing outside threats trying to destabilize their Nations. Just like the Philippines... where 'Blackjack' Pershing helped to set up a successful campaign that only took 12 years!
Say, why are WE so much better than America in the past, when THEY spent far more in proportion to the economy and population of the Nation to get things done than we have stomach for today?
What gives us the right to claim such lofty perch and then declare 'defeat' so fast? Short wars with a bad Peace gets you worse conflicts from that 'peace'. We now have enemies clearly stating the desire for Empire, destruction of liberty, the end of freedom, and looking to global domination. Do note that the US is in this actual place called Planet Earth. The same globe the enemy wishes to take over.
I would rather hunt down and get the butcher NOW, and suffer meager interest in that bill today, than to have the bill entire by butchers we run from come to visit that upon the Nation. For that is their stated goal.
Fight too tough for you?
Or freedom too heavy and you wish to have it removed from you?
And it is the exact same question, answer Yes or No to one, then the other must be answered likewise. Because that is how the enemy sees it and they now are looking to that singular answer.
When does America stop running?
When do we face the butchers and either cash them out or pay their price?
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