Why the Iraq War is NOT Comparable to WWII
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Supporters of the war in Iraq are quite fond of comparing it to the “Just War,” World War II. If they can only find enough similarities with the war against Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, they can justify the horrific mistake made by the Bush administration in going to war in Iraq. They’ve been doing this for over four years now, and fewer and fewer people are buying it.
The logic runs thus: Saddam Hussein = Adolf Hitler; Iraq = Germany; Kurdish Iraqis = Jews. These comparisons, however, are simplistic, shallow and ideological. In short, the United States’ war in Iraq bears very little resemblance to World War II.
1. World War II lasted 1,348 days. As of March 23, 2007, the Iraq War has lasted 1,466 days. For those of you counting that’s 1,348 days between the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in on December 7, 1941 and VJ Day, August 15, 1945. In that time, the United States managed to defeat Japan, Germany, and Italy in two oceans and on three continents. In Iraq, however, our modern, all-volunteer, professional military cannot defeat or even subdue a single country of 26 million, where the “enemy,” even by the military’s own accounting, numbers less than 2,000 foreign fighters and terrorists, and less than 50,000 insurgents.
2. “There were armies to fight in World War II,” said Owen Cote Jr., associate director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Security Studies Program in Cambridge. “It was a traditional war. You basically have a struggle between two armies, and the one that gets defeated gives up.” The United States is fighting a counterinsurgency campaign in Iraq – rather than a standard military conflict such as World War II – which makes it a tougher conflict to win, Cote said.
3. In World War II, American civilians knew the names of their heroes. We knew General Patton in North Africa. We knew General Eisenhower in Europe. In the Iraq War, commanders have been turned over as frequently as steaks on a grill. A profusion of units and commanders have rotated in and out of the country every few months; even close observers can hardly remember their names.
4. Religion plays a role that wasn’t seen in WWII. Now that Iraq is occupied by the United States and has a new government, religious sectarian violence among Sunni and Shiite Muslims has increased. After the WWII, we did not see German Catholics gunning down German Lutherans. Once religion is involved, it is nearly impossible to convince the enemy that they are wrong.
5. Another major difference between the two wars was the cooperation of other nations in World War II versus the unilateral effort of the United States in Iraq. The Bush administration went to war without a serious international coalition. In World War II, the U.S. had committed allies working with us. Many nations came together. In Iraq, we have a few countries that sent a few troops essentially because they wanted to remain in the United States’ good graces. As their own populations have expressed their disapproval, those foreign governments have withdrawn their support.
6. Public support for President Roosevelt remained high during World War II. In early March 2007. President Bush’s approval rating hovered around 36% according to Wall Street Journal. Public support for the war also dropped below 50 percent – a major factor that ousted Republicans from Congress in the mid-term elections, according to exit polls.
7. In World War II, the American public was well aware that we were at war. We bought war bonds, participated in paper, rubber, and metal drives, and rationed their daily goods. The Bush administration is trying to have it both ways. They continue to encourage Americans to spend, spend, spend and enjoy their lives of plenty. It has little to build solidarity on the home front. The fact that the war is very unpopular is a direct result of that. In Iraq, the vast majority of Americans hardly notice we are at war on a day-to-day basis.
8. In WWII, the government spent what they had. They scraped the bottom and sacrificed to earn security. Iraq, on the other hand, is a credit card war. We spend $8 billion a month to fight in Iraq and no one makes a financial sacrifice. No one even notices.
9. In WWII, an estimated 3 million European Jews were murdered in the Nazis’ pogroms and extermination camps. Another several hundred thousand gypsies, homosexuals, political dissidents and mentally or physically disabled people were also murdered by Hitler’s forces. Saddam Hussein’s forces are accused of killing approximately 200,000 Kurdish dissidents. All these numbers are devastating, but they are not comparable.
10. Another major difference between World War II and the Iraq War is also seen in the death tolls of the American military. In World War II, more than 400,000 U.S. military personnel were killed, according to military reports. Since the Iraq invasion more than four years ago, almost 3,000 U.S. men and women have been killed in Iraq.
The last point may sound like a positive, but consider this final difference between the current war and WWII. Our grandparents, the “Greatest Generation,” could feel good about their accomplishments in WWII. They eradicated a great evil with their tremendous sacrifices. By invading Iraq, the Bush administration has started a fire they cannot hope to put out or even contain. Neither the U.S. government nor the American people are willing to sacrifice much for a war they know they cannot win. So the bill will have to be paid tomorrow – by our children or our grandchildren. We will never convince these people that their religion is wrong, that their culture is wrong, that their way of life is wrong. After all, could they convince us that we’re wrong?
Citations – Arkin, W., Washington Post, Early Warning, 11/27/2006; McGonigle, B.. Boston University, Iraq War Surpasses Time Span of U.S. Involvement in World War II, 11/28/2006; Murray, M., NBC News, Sex scandal, Iraq book take toll on Bush, GOP, 3/6/2007; United States Holocaust Museum, 3/9/2007; Associated Press, Saddam Hussein’s genocide trial resumes, 12/18/2006
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