It is a "Police Action" like Korea.

We are going to build a DMZ around Kurdistan. And keep a division there for the next 100 years.

Hey, what's this "Merciful God" crap -
God does not exist under Democratic Rule.

Exactly what you said. EVERY. WORD.

(Including "Merciful God," because I think we're gonna need Him to be thus.)

Baker's a pragmatist, but I don't think he's quite that much of a defeatist. And I'm hopeful that the internal divisions among the Dems will keep them from trying to cut off funding. I think we'll scale back our presence some; but hopefully the Iraqi government can hang in there.

The problem as I see it is that the Iraqi government is unwilling to reign in the revenge-killing of al-Sadr's Mahdi Army and Sistani's Badr brigades. They're turning a blind eye t0 the revenge killings by these groups because they think they're on the same side as the central government. At some point, al-Maliki's going to have to choose whether to serve Mookie or to take him out. I'm hoping Mookie gets taken out. I think we agreed to a modus vivendi with him in 2003 because we saw the Sunni insurgency as the bigger problem.

Now I'm convinced that Mookie's the bigger problem, mainly because we've ground down the Sunni insurgency and Al-Qaeda over the last 3 years.

Who bells the cat? I think that Sistani and Maliki would both have to sanction the hit, but neither are at that point yet. They have to act before we decide to leave; now that the clock is starting on that, I'm thinking by next spring they'll be ready to move.

My $.02.

Back in 2003, I said that if the troops were all home by 2008 it would mean that we'd lost. Quite a lot of people simply won't accept the sort of sustained commitments we made in Germany and Japan, or even in Korea. Evidently 9-11 wasn't enough of a shock to change that attitude.

Coloss -

The problem is that even if Sistani and Maliki genuinely desire to clean house, it's going to be a tough act to pull off. And every slip up along the way is going to be catnip to the cut-n-run crowd here. Baker may not be a defeatist per se, but if he sees victory as only one of several acceptable options, he's far more likely to bow to pressure from this crew.

No argument here. The problem is, and always has been, ultimately, one of our political will.

It could be worse. It could be raining.

Bwah!

The problem is, and always has been, ultimately, one of our political will.

And the stomach for mass murder.

So sayeth the Josef Mengele of the Zebra Fish American community...

"Not a war to be won" should tell us all we need to know about the new Democrat Congress.

Remember 1974. The Dems got in, and cut off funding for the Vietnam war. Result was the photo above, plus a couple million dead Cambodians.

The same could happen in Iraq. Only, unlike the NVA, which was content to stay in Vietnam after the April 1975 victory, the jihadis will attack us again and again.

We're too fat and lazy and PC and... nice to do what needs to be done with these islamic barbarians. They're gonna win.

Holy crap- we're the new Romans.