National Security Watch: Retiring top soldier warns of 'the long war'
The retiring chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff used his farewell news conference yesterday to try to remind the public that the fight against violent extremists and terrorists is a struggle that will most likely last years.
Gen. Richard Myers, who will step down at the end of this month as chairman, spoke repeatedly about "the long war."
"The enemy knows very clearly they cannot defeat us militarily, so they rely on acts of terrorism to chip away at our resolve, our resolve to win," Myers said. "We are talking here about the long war against terrorism. So consequently, we must remain steadfast against a very determined enemy."
The phrase "long war" is one that Gen. John Abizaid, the head of Central Command, uses frequently to describe the war on terrorism. Indeed, in his goodbye remarks, Myers leaned heavily on several terms of Abizaid's, notably using "violent extremists" as a synonym for terrorists.
President Bush rebuffed the Pentagon earlier this year when military officials pushed to recast the war on terrorism as the "global struggle against violent extremism." After Bush reiterated his preference for the term "war on terror," Pentagon officials, including Myers, returned to that terminology. Still, military officials have not completely abandoned the other words. They find the phrases "violent extremism" and "the long war" useful because they remind the public that the fight against al Qaeda around the world is likely to be a long struggle. The terms also help officials link the fight in Iraq with the war against terrorism. Although the country is divided about the link between the fight in Iraq and the war on terrorism, Myers and other Pentagon leaders frequently argue that if the fight in Iraq is not won, the country will become a safe haven from which terrorists can plot against the United States.
Myers did not say today that the United States had won the war in Iraq, but he did argue that the military would be victorious.
"We were clearly victorious in Afghanistan," he said. "I think we will be victorious in Iraq, but Iraq perhaps will be a long-term issue."
Myers noted, as Abizaid often does, that the long-term struggle requires more than just force to win.
"If you view this as a long war, the long war is about deterring people from jihad, by providing other opportunities–political and economic. The military will have a role, but perhaps not the predominant role, in the long war."