The worst element of the Hawks and those that push for escalation, eternal occupation, and never ending war is this fixation on "victory" and "success," while never defining what that is (except the desire to turn Iraq into some sort of peaceful, western democracy fit to join NATO, which is clearly a derranged fantasy). No matter how many Freidman Units pass by, it's never a question of political solutions coupled with an understanding of nationalism, but always a test of wills and willpower. And what is really at stake is "American prestige," whatever that is, or that "don't you unserious liberals know that if we leave Iraq, Al-Queda will take over the world, rape our horses, and ride off on the women."
They don't get that we are the occupier. Our enemey, the "bad guys" that the hawks like to talk about, LIVE IN IRAQ. They will always be there, and we need to recognize this fact, because it is their country.
And so do all their families. The militant Shi'ite Arabs? Live in Iraq. Sunnis disenfranchised by the new Shi'a/Kurd dominated government? Live in Iraq. Tribal adolescents who have had relatives killed by this war and now have a vendetta against US troops? Live in Iraq. About 1-5% of the mayhem makers are actual outside agitators trying to fight some Al-Queda jihad. The rest are the actual natives.
The natives are not going to go away. They will not "surrender." We can't snuff out nationalism, tribalism, and religious identity. We can't wave a wand and make everyone live in smiling, happy unity, with peace, a pony, and a cold coca-cola. But that is basically the stated end goal of the Hawks.
The nutjob hawks like to argue against those "unserious liberals" who seem to lack the will to power, I mean victory. This hawk quoted in this andrew sullivan post says it all. He notes:
It has been said that in all of history's great campaigns and great battles, there are moments when each side believes it is beaten--and that victory goes to the side that wills itself through these pivotal moments of doubt. Is it possible the current Iraq campaign is at just such a moment? One wonders what is the real state of confidence of Iraq's insurgents and their supporters?
But he just doesn't get that the Sunni Bathists in Anbar, the smuggling, kidnapping, and criminal tribes, the Shi'ite militamen, none of them need to "will itself through" a "pivotal moment of doubt" to stay in Iraq. They ARE in Iraq. They are Iraq today, like it or not. And they are all going to be willing to pick up a gun and fight for what they think they deserve. And if one of 'em gives up, there's always a new kid who has a chip on his shoulder, who's honor feels slighted by a constant occupation, by searches, harrasments, Abu Ghraib, the green zone, Americans living in Saddam's old palaces, you name it, who will pick one of the many guns laying around and join the fight.
You can't "win" against that. It simply is. That is what reality is in Iraq. And the first step on the road to any succesful solution in Iraq is to understand that reality.
Once we do, we can start handling this thing politically, and understand that the country can only be run and succesfully controlled by the people who live there. And that nobody in Iraq wants to share the power right now. And that they will fight until they figure out how to do so, or until they figure out how to live separately in peace.
Whatever the political solution may be, it's clear that standing around, pissing everyone off in the midst of a low-grade civil war aint it. But the Hawks don't want to swallow that, because accepting reality, to them, means admitting they were wrong. And we can't have that. So it's more boys into the meat grinder to prop up a petty man-child's "prestige."