The First World War was, of course, famous for trench warfare. A protracted stalemate rather than a series of decisive battles. The politicians and monarchs were mostly content to "let it bleed" rather than be innovate enough to bring the war to a military or diplomatic end.
We are once again in trench warfare.
Since the president's troop surge in Iraq began this past February, we have all waited like gimps in an infirmary for General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker to descend from Mount Iraq. Toting, we hoped, stone tablets with directives with which to lead us to the Promised Land.
No such luck.
Well, our men and women in uniform remain stuck in their trenches.
Petraeus says the 30,000 "surge" troops should stay in place until at least next July. Nearly 120,000 will remain in Iraq for the foreseeable future.
The foreseeable future being the next decade.
And the war goes on.
Settle in, folks. It's likely to be quite the wait before our Armistice day.
The First World War analogy is apt. That conflict was entirely unnecessary, a massive over-reaction to a single pistol shot.
It brought down empires and slaughtered an entire generation of young men. Over nothing. It also led directly to World War Two and what's going on in the Middle East today.
Got any ideas as to which 'empire' is going to fall this time? Over a buncha lies.
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