The War in Iraq is NOT two years old!

If you consider the start of the Iraq War to have been two years ago when the invasion began then the analogies to Vietnam appear shaky since that conflict lasted for more than 10 years. Surely we should wait a few more years before saying that the situations are comparable, no?

No. Because the conflict in Iraq started back in 1991. That's when we first went to war against Saddam. That's when we first started fighting within the territorial region of Iraq. Even after the major conflicts of the initial fight ended there were still large skirmishes and scattered bombings throughout the 90s. So the conflict in Iraq has been going on for 14 years. That is longer than our fight in Vietnam!

In fact, the first few years of our fight in Vietnam was comparatively  low key. It wasn't until Johnson escalated the conflict in 1967(*) that the war became a full-blown affair. Similarly, the Iraq War has only recently become a major conflict when Bush "escalated" in 2003.

I kick myself for not having made this connection before. I owe thanks to Sam Sedar, who commented on this very thing last night on Air America.

 

(* I think, I might be off by a year)