ANOTHER 5-6 YEARS???

On NPR yesterday morning, I listened to a segment about the possibility of a long-term committment to Iraq and a press conference with Gen. James Conway, the Marine Corps Commandant was mentioned. It seems the Defense Department is thinking of another 5-6 years!

DoD News Briefing with Gen. Conway from the Pentagon
May 17, 2007 1:00 PM EDT

(excerpts)

GEN. CONWAY: ... The difference in the time we have -- the difference in the time we in uniform need for success in Iraq and the amount of time our countrymen are prepared to invest is a disconnect that's troubling. We enter these first battles of what has become known as "the long war" with the expectation that the tasks could be difficult, but that they would be short-lived. Our experiences have proven otherwise.

Q When you say there's this disconnect between the amount of time that you in uniform believe it's going go require and what the political will in the United States is. And you point out that four and a half years -- or four years for Anbar province to begin to turn around. It doesn't sound like in September that you're going to be prepared to start pulling troops out.

GEN. CONWAY: I think that will depend upon a number of things that happen between now and September. But what I intended to say -- if it didn't come across that way, I'll need to think about how I say it next time -- but I do believe that there's a certain amount of time that it takes to overcome an insurgency type of environment. Historically it's been somewhere between nine and 10 years, with various levels of effort. I think that there is less of an appetite in our country than we the military might think we need to sustain that kind of effort over that period of time. That's the basic disconnect that I was talking about.