Wartime Rhetoric

It is easy to think I must have misunderstood the news coverage somewhere along the line, to believe myself confused in thinking the war in Iraq was never supposed to have lasted this long. Can we feel the quagmire developing in Iraq now threatening to repeat the political, economic, and moral horrors of Viet Nam? The graphic put up by the New York Times this morning helps to clear some of my confusion. Click through the links here to review the public rhetoric as it has shifted over the past two years ... yes, it has been two years since President Bush declared an end to the war in Iraq. Note in particular that a May 1, 2003 administrative statement made it clear that the American military presense would be drawn down to 30,000 troops by the end of that year - that's two years ago! There are more than 138,000 troops in Iraq still waiting to come home, and it was just last week that Mr. Rumsfeld announced that it could be "five, six, eight, 10, 12 years" before they do.


technorati tags: war, Iraq, tommi