The US commander in Iraq, counter-insurgency wunderkind General David Petraeus has told BBC that fighting the Iraqi insurgency is a long-term challenge that could take decades.
If anyone should know, it's Petraeus whose extensive study of insurgency and guerrilla warfare was incorporated in the US Army's new counter-insurgency field manual, FM 3-24.
The general's comments, while probably accurate, raise some tough questions. For example, just what is going to be left of Iraq after an insurgency/civil war of decades? What does this forecast mean to the American people and the 2008 elections?
It's going to be tough, if not impossible, to sell the idea of a decades-long war in Iraq to Americans in 2007 after they've put up with four years of setbacks. They have simply lost their appetite for this wholly unnecessary adventure and I'm sure Petraeus knows that as well as anyone.
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