I agree that we’re in a new world war (and the third in a row that is a fundamental clash of ideologies), but I wish that Newt would stop calling it World War III. It’s World War IV. World War III was the Cold War. And unfortunately, this one may last almost as long.

[Update]

I should note this (a couple years old, and quite long) essay by Norman Podhoretz on this issue.

[Late morning update]

If we’re in a long world war, then it makes no sense to talk about the “war” in Iraq. It was only a battle, as was Afghanistan, as Larry Schweikart points out:

The supposed value of history is that it allows one to apply a long-term lens perspective to current events. That, however, seems to be sadly missing in the case of the War on Terror, and, especially, Iraq. Let me say from the get-go that the Bush Administration erred badly in allowing the struggle in Iraq to be labeled a “war.” It is a battle, part of the larger War on Terror. It is no more a “war” than Sicily or North Africa were “wars.” But Bush fell into the Left’s trap and allowed it to be called a “war,” and as such it has been separated from the “War on Terror,” and the “War in Afghanistan,” itself a battle.

As historians (objective ones, that is) look back 30 years from now, and write the history of this war, they will find the battle of Iraq essentially was over after November 2004. I do not say that because Bush won reelection–that was critical, but so was the formation of the Iraqi government at that time–but because those two events then allowed a military victory at Fallujah, which was the tipping point of this battle (or, if you prefer, “war”). At Fallujah, more than 2000 terrorists were killed and the real al-Qaeda back of the so-called “insurgency” broken. Since then, Zarqawi was scrambling, as did the Japanese after Okinawa, to re-stock his ranks of suicide bombers. They were both unsuccessful. Last month, Zarqawi was killed, replicating the shooting down of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto’s plane in 1943. Even then, the war in the Pacific was not over–and the bloodiest battles had not been fought–but again, the outcome was further cemented.

And he’s optimistic that we’re going to ultimately win. I hope he’s right.