Rumsfeld: Insurgency Could Last for Years
"Foreign forces are not going to repress that insurgency. We're going to create an environment that the Iraqi people and the Iraqi security forces can win against that insurgency," [Rumsfeld] said.
He says that the Iraqi government can win, not will win. So what are the parameters for determining when the environment is sufficently favorable to the Iraqi government? Who gets to decide? Are they perhaps the result of a mathematical function using Republican poll numbers? The lower the polls, the less favorable the environment need be? Maybe, but I don't think so.
Will we be able to agree on criteria to objectively determine if an Iraqi failure occurred due to an insufficiently favorable environment, or their own inadequacy? Will Poland Chinas be spotted in a graceful V formation against the moon?
I think that Republicans will declare that the only proof that the environment was favorable enough for a win by the Iraqi government will be their success in defeating the insurgency. Their failure will only prove that the environment wasn't favorable enough.
Therefore when a Democratic Congress in 2006, or a Democratic president in 2008, decides that the environment is favorable enough to withdraw troops, and Iraq descends into the chaos of civil war, the Republicans will blame the Democrats.
It won't be the Republicans' fault that Democrats squandered a golden opportunity to foster democracy in the Middle East by bugging out when Iraq was just about to turn the corner and be strong enough to stand against the insurgents alone.