There's been a numerical meme floating around the blogosphere for a few days. I saw it at TalkLeft first, and then I got it in an email today. It's this:
- December 7, 1941 through May 8, 1945 (VE-Day) = 1,248 days
- March 19, 2003 (U.S. invasion of Iraq) through Friday, August 18, 2006 = 1,248 days
The point, it seems, is that the time the US has been involved in Iraq is the same amount of time as WWII. A sobering thought, but it's not accurate. For one thing, combat operations for the United States didn't end until VJ-Day, when Japan surrendered, on August 15, 1945 - another three months. For another, WWII raged long before the attack on Pearl Harbor. The usual date for the start of the War is September 1, 1939, when Germany invaded Poland. Personally, I think it began on July 7, 1937 when
Japan invaded China. In other words, we have
years to go before the Iraqi quagmire (or the "War on Terra" generally) stretches as long as WWII.
Which is not to deny the mess of Iraq or the toll it's taken on the US and the Middle East. But if we're going to make comparisons with the largest military conflict in the planet's history, let's get the numbers right.
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