Afghan War surpasses Vietnam War in its duration

The Afghan war is now the country's longest, surpassing Vietnam in its duration.

One hundred and three months passed between passage of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and the withdrawal of the last American combat forces from Vietnam. As of today, the Afghanistan war is 104 months old, ABC News reports.

In many ways, Vietnamu00a0u00a0 and Afghanistan defy comparison. One was the result of a slow, creeping policy of containing communism in Southeast Asia; the other a visceral, swift response to an attack on U.S. soil.

More than 50,000 Americans lost their lives in Vietnam; certainly no one expects the toll in Afghanistan to reach anything like that number.

But Vietnam and Afghanistan do have this much in common: they are distant, profoundly complex, and ill-understood campaigns. Not surprisingly, then, they defy easy resolutions. And, in their own ways, these two wars have tested the mettle and patience of a nation.