New Delhi: It has been long six years since the US declared a war on Iraq. The US-led invasion of Iraq began on March 19, 2003.
Six years ago, then President George Bush announced the war in a televised address to the nation.
"My fellow citizens," he began his four-minute speech, "at this hour, American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people, and to defend the world from grave danger."
Six years later, the conflict in Iraq drags on - with war-fatigued Americans shoving the military operation to the deep recesses of their psyches as they grapple with an economic crisis at home. It is one of the longest wars in American history.
The US has lost more than 4,000 troops and at least 1,28,000 Iraqis have died. The British military too has reported 179 deaths.
But with the economic crisis, war is far from the people's minds. According to a survey conducted during the presidential elections, barely 10 per cent of the voters picked war as a top issue.
According to 62 per cent, economy was the major concern.
"This is already one of the longest wars in American history. There's nothing new in Iraq," said a professor of media studies at the George Washington University, Steven Roberts, told CNN. "We've read the stories of instability in the government a hundred times. Every single possible story has been told, and so there is enormous fatigue about Iraq."
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