If we're done fighting them over there...

By Edward Copeland

The big Dubyaland argument for perpetuating the quagmire in Iraq is that we are fighting them over there, so we don't fight them here. According to Thomas Ricks and Karen de Young in today's Washington Post, their Pentagon sources are telling them that al-Qaida in Iraq is "basically crippled."

The U.S. military believes it has dealt devastating and perhaps irreversible blows to al-Qaeda in Iraq in recent months, leading some generals to advocate a declaration of victory over the group, which the Bush administration has long described as the most lethal U.S. adversary in Iraq.

In a rare instance of learning from past mistakes, the Bush administration is reluctant to declare victory prematurely (or is it they are reluctant to have their main argument for staying gone and have the U.S. military be purely baby sitters to a civil war?)

"I think it would be premature at this point," a senior intelligence official said of a victory declaration over AQI, as the group is known. Despite recent U.S. gains, he said, AQI retains "the ability for surprise and for catastrophic attacks." Earlier periods of optimism, such as immediately following the June 2006 death of AQI founder Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in a U.S. air raid, not only proved unfounded but were followed by expanded operations by the militant organization.

Apparently, military leaders are torn over what to do and arguing about the best course of action. Of course, that's probably irrelevant, since Bush and Cheney will do whatever the hell they want anyway. Maybe the GOP talking points are all wrong: It's not Democrats who want to "lose" in Iraq, it's Republicans.