BAD NEWS AMERICA

There are some facts that we, as humans, refuse to believe or accept no matter how obvious they may be. We look for any explanation other than the one that's staring us in the face. Why, because the pain of reality is too great. Unfortunately, the diplomatic and military failure in Iraq has become a perfect example of this phenomenon.

Clearly the occupation of Iraq, that is fraudulently referred to as a war, has been lost. If it is possible to lose an occupation. In order to win a military conflict the victor needs to be able to demonstrate that they have achieved either all, or at minimum a significant number of their principle objectives. The US stated their objectives as capturing Saddam's WMD's and/or bringing a stable western style democracy to Iraq. Though these objectives were presented in a disjointed amorphous manner, they were about as close as we ever heard to clear objectives. It is obvious that the WMD objective cannot be achieved for obvious reasons. That only leaves the second objective, which is a stable democracy. Instead of moving towards democracy, Iraq is moving towards complete anarchy. Meanwhile, the American public has grown weary of the carnage and will not stand for this mess to go on much longer. If we define a victory as having achieved our objectives, then wouldn't we define defeat as not having achieved them. In this case, we haven't even come close to achieving any and the hopes are dimming rather than getting brighter.

The question is not whether we have lost in Iraq (again, if its possible to lose an occupation), the question is now when do we admit it and transform our strategy into managing defeat and disaster. Currently the Bush administration is applying the perfect recipe for failure" if something isn't working, do more of it" After adding thousands of additional troops to Baghdad in July of 2006 failed to improve security the Administration is now on course to take their doomed strategy to the next level. By adding troops throughout the entire nation they expect that what hasn't worked in four years will now start working.

America, the answer is right in front of our faces. We must face the grim reality that thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have died for nothing. Or worse, they have died to make a bad situation exponentially worse. That's a bitter pill for the American people to swallow. The military has long known this and has reported it to the Administration. The longer we avoid this tragic truth, the longer we go before we adjust to a strategy which accepts reality and looks for the international help that is our only hope for an exit.

Henry Kissinger recently admitted that "A U.S. victory in Iraq is no longer possible under the conditions the Bush administration hopes to achieve, but a quick withdrawal of American troops would have "disastrous consequences," Ask yourself this question, if you attack a country and you don't win, isn't the only other option losing. Didn't Mr Kissinger tell us all we needed to know in that statement? This game is clearly over, its time to go to a strategy of managing a military and political catastrophe. The Bush administration has dug us into a deep hole, its time to put away the shovel!