The Twelve To Eighteen Month War
We’ve had the 100 year war, the war of 1812, the 30 year war, the 6 day war. I think the war in Iraq should be called “The Twelve to Eighteen Month War”.
It appears that just about everything about it is supposed to take that long. It’s how long it should take to crush the insurgency. It’s how long the troop ’surge’ will last. It’s how long before the Iraqi security forces will be able to take over. It’s how long the re-deployment will take. It’s how long it’s funded for.
Sure, after each twelve to eighteen month period it requires another twelve to eighteen months for some reason. This is very upsetting to many of us but think of the poor folks in the 100 years war. There they were in the ninety-ninth year and thinking “oh just one more year” but it was sixteen more years before it ended.
On New Years Eve 1812 they were thinking “oh the war of 1812 is over tomorrow” but it didn’t end until eighteen-fifteen.
Since everything for the last four years has been said to require only another twelve to eighteen months, I see no reason why we can’t call it The Twelve to Eighteen Month War.