Six months
By Michael J.W. Stickings
Guardian Unlimited: "An elite team of officers advising US commander General David Petraeus in Baghdad has concluded the US has six months to win the war in Iraq -- or face a Vietnam-style collapse in political and public support that could force the military into a hasty retreat."
Suffice it to say, however, there are certain "entrenched problems" that seem to stand in the way of victory.
Which begs a couple of questions:
-- How is victory now defined?
-- Is the war even winnable at all?
If the answer to the second question is "No" -- and it would seem to be -- then what's the point? Even an improvement in the security situation in Baghdad -- is that now "victory"? -- would likely just be temporary, what Andrew Sullivan has called a "phony peace".
Six months? Victory? Doubtful.
Guardian Unlimited: "An elite team of officers advising US commander General David Petraeus in Baghdad has concluded the US has six months to win the war in Iraq -- or face a Vietnam-style collapse in political and public support that could force the military into a hasty retreat."
Suffice it to say, however, there are certain "entrenched problems" that seem to stand in the way of victory.
Which begs a couple of questions:
-- How is victory now defined?
-- Is the war even winnable at all?
If the answer to the second question is "No" -- and it would seem to be -- then what's the point? Even an improvement in the security situation in Baghdad -- is that now "victory"? -- would likely just be temporary, what Andrew Sullivan has called a "phony peace".
Six months? Victory? Doubtful.
Labels: Iraq, U.S. military
posted by Michael J.W. Stickings at
12:06 AM
1 Comments:
Like you said, it all depends on how you define victory. If victory is defined as "establishing permanent US military bases from which to launch any act of aggression we please whenever we like," we're there already. I don't see the US ever leaving those bases to anyone else, regardless of what happens to the Iraqi government or their people. A functional Iraq is neither necessary or desired and a broken, dysfunctional Iran would be all the better. If you have the ethics of a Cheney.
For me, Kucinich ethics rule. We lost the war the moment we started it.
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Anonymous, at 1:04 PM
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