Henry Kissinger now says it's not possible to win in Iraq:
WaPo -- Military victory is no longer possible in Iraq, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said in a television interview broadcast Sunday. ... In a wide ranging interview on BBC television, Kissinger presented a bleak vision of Iraq, saying the U.S. government must enter into dialogue with Iraq's regional neighbors including Iran if any progress is to be made in the region.
Kissinger is only the latest to accept the reality that this war, judged by many combat experts to be ill-conceived from inception and subsequently bungled to an extraordinary degree, is unwinnable. Of course, there's always the obligatory rejoinder that we 'cannot leave right away' or Iraq would 'descend into civil war and chaos.' Hear that soldiers, sailors, and marines? You can't 'win' according to Kissinger -- and a bunch of other people -- but George Bush is going to let sectarian militias use you for target practice anyway. Putting aside the tragic consequences for our brave service people in harm's way, and their families and friends, what are the stakes, according to the White House, if we do not prevail in Iraq?
Bush 2004 -- "[Zarqawi] and other terrorists know that Iraq is now the central front in the war on terror. And we must understand that, as well."
Bush 2005 -- "Some wonder whether Iraq is a central front in the war on terror. Among the terrorists, there is no debate. Hear the words of Osama Bin Laden: 'This Third World War is raging" in Iraq. The whole world is watching this war.' He says it will end in "victory and glory, or misery and humiliation."
So the terrorist themselves agree that if Bush can't win in Iraq, that they've beaten him and us, and won the epic struggle of civilizations?
George Bush in Salt Lake City, September 2006 -- "Some politicians look at our efforts in Iraq and see a diversion from the war on terror. That would come as news to Osama bin Laden, who proclaimed that the Third World War is raging in Iraq. It would come as news to the No. 2 man of al Qaeda, Zawahiri, who has called the struggle in Iraq, 'the place for the greatest battle.' ... If we give up the fight in the streets of Baghdad, we will face the terrorists in the streets of our own cities. The security of the civilized world depends on victory in the war on terror and that depends on victory in Iraq."
That "Iraq Is The Central Front In The War On Terror," and that head radical goons like Osama bin Laden agree, was no brief rhetorical statement by any means. It was affirmed endlessly by Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Condoleeza Rice, and a host of other administration mouthpieces, pundits, and GOP lawmakers for three years running, with George Bush leading the charge.
Over and over the Bush-Cheney Administration, helped out by their Rubber-stamp Republican drones and assorted right-wing media borg have assured us, reminded us, and at times arrogantly scolded us, that all is well, that "Iraq is the Central Front in the War on Terror," that we have to win over there, or we'll be fighting them here, and that the fate of civilization depends on victory in Iraq.
Over and over, mostly from the safety of a corner office ensconced in wealth and privilege, draft dodging chicken-hawks portrayed war critics who did swear to defend our nation as traitors, gleefully smeared combat vets as cowards, and applauded the intimidation and muzzling of high ranking military experts who expressed even a shred of concern over the unfolding neocon catastrophe in Iraq.
Over and over intelligence was spun, excuses were made, deceptive soundbites were crafted and handed down to the right-wing media machine. Over and over We the People were told that the insurgency was waning, that great progress was being made, that there was light at the end of the tunnel, that things would improve in another six months.
It would be cheap, it would be quick; it would be Mission Accomplished.
Through it all to this day, hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars evaporate like morning fog while morgues and trauma care wards full of dead and maimed Americans are quietly stacked away by the same despicable operatives who claimed to support the troops.
If the President was being truthful about the significance of Iraq to the war on terror and the stakes therein, doesn't it flow by elementary deduction that the White House and the Republicans have lost the Central Front in the War on Terror?