Opinion (Donnie Johnston): Could war in Iraq get worse?

WE ARE SADLY on the verge of passing two unenviable milestones in the Iraq War.

If casualties continue at the recent pace, more than 2,986 American soldiers will have died in that conflict by the middle of January.

That, of course, is the number of Americans who were killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

And if we are still in Iraq in March, which seems a given, Iraq will be the third-longest war in American history, surpassed only by Vietnam and the American Revolution.

Despite earlier claims of "Mission Accomplished," the Iraq War has already lasted longer than the Civil War or World War II. Come March, we will be heading into year five of a war that was declared won after one month of battle.

We are stuck in Iraq with no honorable way out, something I predicted in a much-maligned column in the months before President George W. Bush barged into that nation to destroy all those weapons of mass destruction, which, of course, never existed.

If American troops stay, we will be embroiled in that conflict until hell freezes over. If we pull out, some 3,000 American soldiers will have died for nothing.

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