Posted by
Mark McConnell on Thursday, December 07, 2006 11:46:03 AM
It's annoying to read headlines about the Iraq panel which have the word "failing" in quotation marks, but to find not one line of attribution for that word. Certainly if our efforts to put down the violence continues "not
working", and goes on being "grave and deteriorating", then of course
the end will inevitably be failure. But how does that word end up in quotes: "failing"?
I know I'm being nit-picky. But the word "failing" all by itself means that everything is moving in the direction of failure - and in the context of military actions, this equates to
defeat. Defeat is not what is happening: we win all the battles. The losses on the other side are huge - an embarrassment, ironically. Islamist factions continue to shoot at one another, as well as Americans. We are not stopping the murder and mayhem - and this is getting worse. Does this mean that we have "
have failed in almost every regard" as an AP story put it?
The Islamists cannot defeat us militarily, but they can inflict massive casualties on a people unwilling to absorb the cost of resisting them. It is much easier to turn around diplomatic and military strategies than it is to steel the nerves of a nation. I don't think that the Baker/Hamilton commission mentioned anything about how our leaders are "failing" in that more important regard.
tags: Iraq panel, Iraq Study Group "failing"
Update: - When you hear "Tony Blair says the Coalition is now losing the war in Iraq ", don't you hear `We are now being defeated' ? This is not what Tony Blair said, and it would not be accurate if he did. We are not winning: we have not arrested the instability or put a stop to sectarian violence, but this is not defeat. Our efforts to stop people from murdering one another is not succeeding. This is a very different thing from saying we are "losing".
- Hugh's, The ISG Report: The Emperor Has No Clothes, is a great aggregate post.
- Katherine's Bush-Blair Press Conference focuses on the media's determination to mold public opinion , rather than to inform it about both, the content and the importance of the ISG report.
- Changed title