What do you call the situation in Iraq?
On May 1, President Bush announced the end of major military operations, but he stopped short of declaring victory or an end to the hostilities.
Since then, the Times-Union joined many other newspapers by dropping references to this as a “war.” Other newspapers have called this an occupation, a presence, a mission, postwar Iraq, military action, post invasion, military operations or used no description at all.
The Associated Press, which is viewed as a newspaper industry’s style leader, has been going with “occupation,” or a “guerrilla war” or “guerrilla conflict,” said Norm Goldstein, the AP’s style expert.
Times-Union editors have been considering which word to use. The object is to find an accurate term that is not being used by partisans. Editors recently settled on “military action” as the preferred term.
In any case, there is no denying that there are about 145,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, the number of deaths has exceeded the 147 troops who died in hostile fire in the 1991 Persian Gulf War and the cost of this military action could reach $100 billion through next year.
Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of the U.S. ground forces in Iraq, doesn’t mince words. “The war that we are fighting is against the former regime leadership. It is against terrorists and criminals,” he said. He was quoted in a Reuters news story.
I posed this issue to (retired Army) Col. Paul Severance of the National Defense University in Washington, D.C., chairman of the Department of Military Strategy and Logistics.
He said the United States is in a transitional phase. The current phase is not war in the classical sense, since the major military operation has ended, Severance said. It is more like a “conflict,” which can be more protracted, but includes limits on the use of weaponry and the levels of violence.
The military has a term, “military operation other than war” — MOOTW for short. Peacemaking and humanitarian missions would fall in that category. The combat in Somalia, dramatized in the book and movie Black Hawk Down, is an example.
I asked members of our thoughtful e-mail group what they think. I received excellent responses, so I regret I can only use a small portion here.
* “It is not still a war, but maintenance. However, if we have to resume the warlike activity because of attacks on our troops by Saddam Hussein’s followers, then I would consider that we would be at war again.” — Mary Deal, Waycross, Ga.
* “The war has never ended in Iraq, only entered a different phase. We are now involved in the archetypical guerrilla war … Call it what it is, a war.” — Bob Caulkins, Brunswick, Ga.
* “We are in the occupation phase of this war.” — Redgie Gutshall, East Arlington.
* “Yes, we are still at war. We officially entered that war on Sept. 11, 2001.” — Ted Vollers, San Marco.
* “It is a war, just as the Korean War was a war, not a conflict or police action, as it was called for years.” — George Olson.
* ” The war is not over until the mission is accomplished entirely, until peace is restored and American soldiers are not being targeted and killed.” — Susan Siegmund, Ponte Vedra Beach.
* “I think that it would be a colossal insult to our troops to label the current situation as anything less than ‘war.’ We made that mistake in Vietnam. The label doesn’t change the reality. As for casualties that are the result of accident, the death of an American in service to our country is not diminished by the cause. In the long view, history doesn’t make such irrelevant distinctions.” — Linda Cardwell, Arlington.
