Okay - I'm on board with what Dr. Dean has been saying over the past couple weeks like most everyone else here. There is a very delicate, yet fundamentally important discussion point that needs to be raised, and I think the good doctor is the man to do it.
It is essential that someone clearly defines what LOSING or FAILURE is with regards to Iraq. We need to get it out there, so that Dubya and friends can't spin their way out of their deserved blame when the inevitable happens.
More after the jump.
I think it is important that the American public knows that an Iraqi civil war means that we've failed. I want the American public to know that the establishment of a theocratic Shi'ite regime is a failure. I want the American public to know that an Iraqi constitution that treats women as chattel is a failure. I want the American public to know that if we are forced to leave (and we will be), then Bush just created the greatest terrorist training camp in the history of mankind, and that means he failed. I want the American public to know that if Iraqi crude is traded for in Euros then that is a failure. I want the American public to know that if the Iraqi's can't pump pre-war levels of crude because of the insurgency, then that is a failure.
And knowing that we failed isn't even enough. The Ameican public has to understand that these failures have real world, painful, consequences. In days gone by, before the corporate assault on a free press, the media probably could have been expected to educate the public with respect to this. Obviously, we can't expect the media to do anything like this any longer.
It will have to be done delicately. A logical place to start would be to go back to all the on the RECORD promises made by Bush and the neocon cabal. First, and I can't believe this hasn't been done yet, can the President please tell us when the Iraqi's are going to be able to pay their own way. Every time a new appropiation bill comes up Democrats should be screaming at the top of their lungs that the American public was told that Iraqi oil revenue was going to pay for the operation, and when can we expect this to happen. Then the Democrats should approve the appropiations so that they can't be labeled as not supporting the troops. The inability to have Iraqi crude pay for the operation is a failure and we need to call Bush on it.
Yes the Iraq situation is tragic, and discussing the failures of such is not without its potential pitfalls. Us saying we told you so about Iraq, is not going to be good enough. It is our moral obligation to do whatever is possible politically to make sure that it never happens again. And to do that, someone is going to have to define what failure is and what it means. I think that someone is Dr. Dean.