"A Little Perspective, Please"

Jonathan Last throws some facts at the doom-and-gloom crowd at today's Weekly Standard:

.... Remember the Grenada cakewalk? The United States invaded on October 25, 1983 and hostilities ended on November 3. If conquering Grenada (133 square miles) took 10 days, shouldn't commentators take a wait-and-see attitude towards Iraq (169,000 square miles)? The same was true for the invasion of Panama. Begun on December 20, 1989, Manuel Noriega didn't surrender until January 3, 1990. That's 15 days.

The first Gulf War was no easier. The allies began the air campaign on January 17, 1991 and didn't reach a cease-fire until February 28 -- 43 days. And if you back up a few months, Iraq invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990. In an invasion that spent no time on the niceties of war which the United States insists upon, Saddam's forces didn't secure their small, militarily inferior neighbor until August 8. It took Saddam 7 days -- and loads of civilian casualties -- to conquer a neighbor with only 2.1 million people.

You say that's ancient history, that we're in a new era? Okay. How about this: In Afghanistan the United States started bombing on October 7, 2001. The last Taliban forces didn't leave Kandahar until December 7 -- a 63 day campaign.

Today, each of these military actions is considered a rout....

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 03/27/03 06:39:23 PM
Categorized as War.