FEATURE-In Iraq war, time is a weapon

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http://today.reuters.com/business/newsarticle.aspx?type=tnBusinessNews&storyID=nN15456005

WASHINGTON, May 16 (Reuters) - U.S. forces in Iraq, locked in a war that cannot be won by military force alone, are facing a weapon that tends to favor insurgents -- time.

The war is in its fourth year and public support is waning. According to opinion polls taken in May, a majority of Americans think that invading Iraq was a mistake and that things in Iraq are going badly. The souring public mood does not bode well for the prospects of prevailing over an insurgency U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has said could last another decade.

Military officers and experts involved in drafting a new counterinsurgency manual for the U.S. Army and the Marine Corps say that patience is one of the keys for success in winning against the kind of enemy the U.S. is facing in Iraq.

"The (counterinsurgency) effort requires a firm political will and extreme patience," says the draft, now going through revisions and expected to be issued in summer. "The insurgent wins if he does not lose, while the counterinsurgent loses if he does not win. Insurgents are strengthened by the common perception that a few casualties or a few years will cause the United States to abandon (the effort)."

Military history shows that past counterinsurgency campaigns in other parts of the world have taken between five and 15 years.