When the U.S.-led coalition invaded Iraq in March 2003, most Americans were expecting a short war. They assumed that we would roll into Iraq with our tanks and fighter jets, annihilate the Iraqi defenses, seize Baghdad, capture Saddam Hussein, and that would be that.

But four years later, the war is still a work in progress. American soldiers are still dying (75 this month), American mothers are still weeping, and Iraqi insurgents are still angry, numerous and hostile.

And I, for one, am not surprised. I do not believe we will ever win the war with Iraq, for the simple reason that conquering Iraq is impossible.

For Iraq, you see, is a desert. There are parts of Iraq that are not desert, it is true — the famous Fertile Crescent lies in Iraq, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and there are various oases scattered here and there — but for the most part, Iraq is a desert. And like most deserts, the greater part of Iraq is uncharted. Indeed, fully 90 percent of the country remains unexplored, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

So, if we want to conquer Iraq, we must conquer and occupy a gigantic and uncharted desert. This is, of course, impossible; we cannot occupy a desert; we can only occupy the major cities and roads. The enemy, on the other hand, is familiar with the country and can hide in any one of the numerous small settlements scattered about the sands.

Thus, to defeat the enemy’s forces is impossible, because to defeat them we must find them, and to find them we must explore a desert. Our enemies are hiding in an enormous desert; they might as well be on Pluto.

The second reason we will never conquer Iraq is that Iraq is stoutly held by men fanatically devoted to their cause. The Iraqi insurgents have shown themselves perfectly willing to use suicide bombers. Earlier this month a man walked into a cafe in Balad Ruz, detonated the explosives concealed within his vest, and killed 30 people. I do not condone this action, of course, but it indicates the strength of the insurgents’ belief in the rightness of their cause.

Moreover, the insurgents are defending their homeland. It is never easy to defeat an enemy on his homeland; it is still more difficult when that homeland is a desert; and it is more difficult still when the enemy’s army is composed of fanatics who are willing to commit suicide in the defense of their country.

Another reason we will never conquer Iraq is that there is no specific enemy for us to conquer. The Iraqi resistance is not an army; it is, rather, an organization of men devoted to a common cause, like the Brotherhood in 1984. The Iraqi insurgents are not conglomerated around any central town or city; they are spread all over the country. Nor do they attack in the traditional manner, with battle lines and jet planes and concerted action; they engage, rather, in guerilla warfare, with a suicide attack here, a bomb there. These guerilla tactics are not very efficient (the insurgents manage to kill only about 75 Americans per month), but they keep the resistance alive, and as long as the resistance is alive, the war will never end.

President Bush said, “We are going to bring democracy to Iraq” and countless Iraqis replied, “Over my dead body!” Since they meant what they said, and we cannot possibly find and kill them all, we will never conquer Iraq.

The final reason why we will never conquer Iraq is very simple: we have not conquered Iraq yet. Last Tuesday, March 20, marked the fourth anniversary of our invasion in 2003. We are the most powerful country in the world, we have incomparably the strongest military, and yet we have been fighting for four years and still have not won. If the war with Iraq could be “won,” we would have won it by now.

So if we cannot win the war with Iraq, why don’t we just give up, send our troops home and leave the Iraqis to govern themselves? That is an easy question. A withdrawal from Iraq would mean a loss of national prestige, and would also doom our president to a buffoon’s place in history. And the reputation of our country and our president are, of course, more important than the lives of hundreds or thousands of our citizens. So carry on, Mr. Bush! Just don’t expect any results any time soon.

E-mail Jeff at [email protected].