Reply #3: Illegal Iraq Invasion lasted longer for USA than World War II

[Octafish]

Probably cost a heckuva lot more in money, too, fooj.

Iraq War Will Soon Outlast US Involvement In World War Two

The violence continues in Baghdad, Iraq.

by Claude Salhani
UPI International Editor
Victoria BC (UPI) Oct 23, 2006

In just a few weeks -- on Nov. 28, to be precise -- U.S. involvement in the Iraq war will have lasted a day longer than its participation in World War II. As a reminder, the United States officially entered WWII on Dec. 8, 1941, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the declaration of war, after the Japanese surprise attack on the U.S. Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, destroyed much of the American fleet.

The war officially ended on Aug. 15, 1945, on Victory in Japan, or VJ-Day. For the United States, the war lasted three years, seven months and seven days. The war in Europe had ended a few months earlier, on May 8.

The U.S. invasion of Iraq began March 20, 2003, Baghdad time (it was still March 19 in the United States and some sources use March 19 as the official start date). By Nov. 28, the United States will have been fighting in Iraq one day longer than American GIs did during WWII.

But this is possibly the only parallel that may be drawn between the two conflicts.

The defeat of the Axis powers in WWII brought about the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany, fascist Italy and Imperial Japan, and with the exception of the odd group of Japanese soldiers stuck in some remote Pacific island outposts who continued to believe the war was still on, the act of surrender meant the end of hostilities.

But in Iraq, the defeat of Saddam Hussein and the disbandment of his army and security services, along with the dismemberment of the Iraqi Baath Party, served as the signal for the start of real hostilities to begin.

The defeat of the Axis in WWII set the ground for a new beginning and for the rebuilding of a devastated Europe. The defeat of Iraq set the ground for an open-ended conflict, and with each passing month, the chances of a negotiated scale-back of violence seem more and more remote. In Europe, the deaths of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini and the execution of Prime Minister Hideki Tojo in Japan signaled the end of WWII. In Iraq, the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, on the other hand, triggered the start of the real war, and saw the beginning of the insurgency against the U.S.-led coalition.

CONTINUED...

http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Iraq_War_Will_Soon_Outlast_US_Involvement_In_World_War_Two_999.html

These two wars, as measured in lives, both represent infinite loss.