Casey and his Band of Brothers: No Sunshine

General George Casey, commander of the multinational force, March 8, 2005:

The average insurgency -- the average counterinsurgency in the 20th century was about nine years, so it takes time to snuff out the insurgency.

...In terms of level of attacks, I mean, we are dealing with an insurgency that has sufficient ammunition, weapons, money and people to maintain a level of attacks of between 50, 60 a day in the Sunni area. They've demonstrated that capability. And that's not -- as I said, that's not something that we're ultimately going to defeat militarily. The people that are supporting and doing these attacks are going to be drawn into -- hopefully, drawn into the political process, and that will take some of the air out of the insurgency.

So it's a combination of the political, the military, the economic, and the communications that's ultimately going to defeat this.

Nine years!

And no reason to think the US can defeat them militarily.

Tip: The Daily Show's Jon Stewart. Casey apparently said much the same thing in testimony to Congress last week, though he added this tidbit.

"And there is no reason that we should believe that the insurgency in Iraq will take any less time to deal with," Casey said,

Great.

Air Force General Richard Myers added this:

"I don't think this committee or the American public has ever heard me say that things are going very well in Iraq," said Myers, speaking a day before he retires from his post. "This is a hard struggle."

Again, great.