'The War will go on, and on and on...'

Sometime toward the end of the movie, Battle of Bulge, the evil Colonel Hessler is tells his naive orderly that if the German offensive succeeds then, 'The war will go on, and on and on!'

American forces have pulled out of Iraqi cities, leaving them to the increasingly competent Iraqi Army and Police. There are still 130,000 American troops in the country, including three Marine Expeditionary Units of the II MEF, the 1st Cavalry Division, and the 25th Infantry Division.

At some point these units, among the best in the American military, will leave, making them eventually, available for deployment elsewhere.

I recall several months ago MSNBC's Mika Berezninski pestering David Frum about our troop's lengthy deployment in Iraq saying, and this is a direct quote, 'they're not ready'.

A flabbergasted Frum asked, 'Ready for what?' and went on to explain that the purpose of a military is not only to be ready to fight a war, but to fight a war, and that is precisely what our troops in Iraq have been doing for more than 6 years.

Critics will say that the adventure in Iraq was a distraction from the War on Terror. That's as asinine as saying the attack on Germany was a distraction from World War Two. Remember, no Nazi planes were at Pearl Harbor.

9/11 was not an isolated incident. Neither are Hamas and Hezbollah's wars on Israel, or Shabab's war on Somalia, or Pakistan's campaign on the northwest, or Iran's quest from the bomb. They are all linked, not only through Iran's extensive terror supporting network, but by ideology. Mullah Omar, Mohammed Aweys, and Sheik Nasrallah all seek to impose the caliphate, just as Germany, Japan, and Italy sought to impose fascism. Our modern enemies can't be treated separately anymore than our Second World War adversaries could.

Will's novel, A Line Through the Desert: The First Gulf War may be purchased at Amazon