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June 28, 2010 | 0 comments
The Spectacle Blog
On Thursday, George Will referred to the Afghanistan War as “America’s longest war.” While the Afghanistan War will likely last at least a decade, if one uses October, 2001 as the start month, it is not yet nine years old. Looking at years, and American fatalities, the least fatal year was 2003, when 48 Americans died. In 2010, 192 Americans have already died. Therefore, there have been nine calendar years of 48 casualties or more in Afghanistan. The Philippine War of 1899-1913 also saw similar combat casualties to those of Afghanistan, and the American-Indian Wars could arguably be the longest war in American History.
If 48 fatalities per year is a sufficient condition for being at war, then Afghanistan is not yet the longest war. According to the National Archives, Americans suffered 52 fatalities in Vietnam in 1962, and suffered more fatalities each and every year until the war’s end in 1975. If one goes by the Paris-Peace Accords in 1973 to measure the war’s end, that would still indicate 12 calendar years of more than 48 fatalities. In seven of those calendar years, America lost more lives than it has in the entire Afghan War to date.
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More Blog Posts by Brian O'Connell
http://spectator.org/blog/2010/06/28/the-longest-war
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Occam's Tool| 6.28.10 @ 1:37PM
I'm not surprised. Our journalistic writers have the historical perspective of a flatworm. For example, some other blowhard in the media described David Petraeus as one of the 10 best Generals in US history.
Well, I think George Washington, George Marshall, George Patton, George Meade (he DID win Gettysburg after having had about a week to take over the Army of the Potomac) and George Thomas might disagree. And those are just the Georges.
Winfield Scott and Winfield Hancock might have room for disagreement, as well. Phil Sheridan, Stonewall Jackson, Robert E Lee, William T Sherman, Bedford Forrest, and Ulysses S Grant are also contenders, along with Dwight Eisenhower and Bradley.
Don't forget the airmen: Hap Arnold, Pete Quesada, and, of course, head and shoulders as a modern general above Petraeus, Curtis LeMay.
So, I'm not surprised Will got this wrong.
Sean| 6.28.10 @ 2:58PM
Yeah, I am having a hard time seeing Petraeus as even close to top ten.
Tim K. | 6.29.10 @ 10:25AM
1. If you want to be specific - the longest war in American history was the Cold War, which is in effect an "umbrella/blanket" covering several Wars that occurred in the 1950's and 1960's.
2. General Petraeus is definitely one of our Top Ten Generals. Defeating the Germans in France was a whole lot easier than defeating the Islamist-Jihadists in Iraq, and eventually in Afghanistan.