Bush's New Line

The Shrub in Chief can apparently no longer face the American people. Hardly surprising after he's hornswoggled, bamboozled, misled, lied to, misdirected, misinformed, poorly led and sadly underestimated. His speeches on his "Plan for Victory" have all been in front of less than representative audiences such as the Naval Academy and the Council on Foreign Relations and moreso, they've neither presented any plan other than the tired "stay the course" nor have they presented the definition of victory. Strange that after three and a half years of conflict, he should suddenly grow a strategy or a definition of victory. I'll tell you the definition of victory per the Shrub:

Troops out of Iraq prior to the 2006 elections. That will be the Republican definition of victory. In the absence of any prior definition of what "victory" means, let alone "complete victory," that nebulous state the Prevaricator in Chief continually calls for, pulling our troops out in time for the mid-term elections is the only definition that makes sense. There'll be some "milestone" not yet defined, perhaps the second Iraqi batalion at level 1 readiness, that precipitates the "victory" parades. Meanwhile, four more Americans have died for this nebulous goal today.

I'm forced to agree with Howard Dean: Victory in Iraq in any real sense is not possible. We can't kill, capture or contain the insurgents well enough to keep them from killing bunches of Iraqis and significant numbers of our highly-trained, hair-triggered, cautions troops. The Iraqis don't seem to take their training seriously - in three years we've managed to stand up how many batallions? The political structure, well, we'll see what next week's elections bring and what follows. One thing is certain: There will be no "condition" that means we can start packing up and coming home. We will not "win" in the classical Western sense. The best we can hope for is a slow fading of hostilities as we pull out.

Bush has used the word "victory" 26 times in his last two speeches, something he'd really like us to associate with his failed strategy in Iraq. Victory will eventually be defined by the President and the Republican party and its definition will be troops home in time for the elections. Keep in mind the Republicans don't lie: Millions of Iraqis support our being in Iraq (less than 20 percent) and the U. S. does not torture prisoners (we shut the secret gulags a month ago).