On Sunday, the Iraq war will have spanned the same number of days -- 1,347 -- that the United States fought World War II (WWII), but perhaps that's where most similarities end, The USA Today reported on Friday.
World War II was fought with navies over two oceans and soldiers on three continents and militaries facing each other in uniform, said the report.
However, in Iraq, whose military was destroyed within weeks of the US-led invasion, the conflict is of a much different nature.
The United States fielded 16 million men and women to fight WWII, with 54 million civilians and 405,000 US troops killed.
Around 1.4 million US troops have served in Iraq and more than 2,800 Americans have died.
The Iraqi Health Ministry estimates that as many as 150,000 Iraqi civilians, police and abductees have been killed.
Still, some things haven't changed much between the two wars.
American troops fighting the Japanese encountered kamikaze airplane strikes on their ships and suicide bombers jumping out of caves.
Today, American troops in Iraq contend with car bomb attacks on their convoys and suicide bombers on foot attacking them in the street, while close-quarter fighting is still just as deadly.
(Xinhua News Agency November 25, 2006)
