"Victory" & "Defeat" In Iraq

MSNBC:

WASHINGTON - U.S. military casualties have surged in Iraq in recent weeks, with U.S. troops engaging in perilous urban sweeps to curb sectarian violence in Baghdad while facing unrelenting violence elsewhere.

At least 44 U.S. troops have been killed so far in October. At the current pace, the month would be the deadliest for U.S. forces since January 2005. After falling to 43 in July, the U.S. toll rose in August and September before spiking this month. The war's average monthly U.S. death toll is 64.

The number of U.S. troops wounded in combat also has surged, with September's total of more than 770 the highest since November 2004, when U.S. forces launched a ground offensive to clear insurgents from Fallujah.

President Bush mentioned several times yesterday that he "take[s] the words of the enemy very seriously, and so should the American people."  But while the President likes to selectively quote al Qaeda missives that promise death and destruction, he neglects to mention these words of the enemy:

The most important thing is that you continue in your jihad in Iraq, and that you be patient and forbearing, even in weakness, and even with fewer operations; even if each day had half of the number of current daily operations, that is not a problem, or even less than that. So, do not be hasty. The most important thing is that the jihad continues with steadfastness and firm rooting, and that it grows in terms of supporters, strength, clarity of justification, and visible proof each day. Indeed, prolonging the war is in our interest, with God's permission.

"Staying the course" is exactly what the terrorists desire.  Keeping the current level of troops there through 2010?  141,000 daily American targets?  It's a terrorist's dream come true.

More below...  

And as the coffins of heroes continue to be lowered into the ground, as the bullet-ridden bodies of the liberated in Iraq are buried in mass graves, the President blathers on about victory.

The President hasn't been able to define "victory" in Iraq because there is no "victory" to be had (and sorry, Republicans, no $20 million party is going to change that).  As kos posted below, James Baker's Iraq policy commission has "ruled out the prospect of victory for America" in Iraq. Thank you, James Baker, for pointing out the obvious.

There is no winning.  There is no losing.

As thereisnospoon points out in his excellent diary, you do not win an occupation.  You end it.

Winning.  What win can come out of so much loss? What celebratory dance can we do on the bones of over 600,000 people?  What is this mirage of victory towards which we plow, and when will we know that we've reached it?

And how do we measure defeat? Ask a widow, and she'll say we have already lost.  Ask an orphan, and see what victory she sees on the horizon.  How do we measure defeat, Mr. President? In years? In gallons of blood? In folded flags? What quantity of what loss--whether it be life or limb or time--will signal to us that this hell is over?

There is no answer, no definition of "defeat", no value to the word "victory."  For the sheer nature of the conflict we have instigated compels this conclusion:  we cannot leave Iraq with head hung low, we cannot leave with pomp and circumstance.  

The only thing we can do is simply leave.

In doing so, we take neither victory nor loss with us.  We carry home not shame or a sense of failure, but solely the bodies of our soldiers, our heroes both live and dead.  We carry them back home, and we make our family whole again.

In ending Iraq--not the "war" in Iraq, not the "war" for Iraq, but this status of Iraq, this condition of Iraq--we leave behind a nation, truly sovereign.   Only then can we re-approach it not as occupiers or invaders, but as one nation aiding another in need.  

Let us end this occupation, and begin anew. Let us end the death, and figure out how to protect life. Let us try to end the pain, and chart a new course toward progress.

Let the end of our Iraq be the beginning of their Iraq.

And let it be soon.  Because the human family cannot endure this pain, this path to "victory" or "defeat" much longer...