Victory?

It is a little sadly amusing to me that General Petraeus now says that he will never declare victory in Iraq.


Q: Do you think you will ever use the word "victory"?

Petraeus: I don't know that I will. I think that all of us at different times have recognized the need for real restraint in our assessments, in our pronouncements, if you will. And we have tried to be very brutally honest and forthright in what we have provided to Congress, to the press, and to ourselves.

"This is not the sort of struggle where you take a hill, plant the flag and go home to a victory parade... it's not war with a simple slogan."


On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff also told House of Representatives Armed Services Committee that they are fighting a lost war against a deadly insurgency in Afghanistan and needed to revise its strategy.

McCain, Bush, Lindsay Graham, Lieberman and the rest of the hawkish flagwaving GOP have derided the Dems and Obama for months for wanting to pull out of Iraq with an achievable victory at hand.

But their own brilliant general contradicts them. Isn't this the administration that wants to leave decisions to those on the battlefield? Shouldn't they be paying closer attention to these people?