Is it an unwinnable 'Republican war'?

© 2005 Creators Syndicate Inc.


From President Bush's Axis of Evil speech in January 2002 to the invasion in March 2003, some of us argued vehemently and ceaselessly against going to war.

We saw no connection between Saddam Hussein and 9-11. We saw no threat from a nation unable even to shoot down a single U.S. plane during 40,000 sorties in the previous decade. We warned that an occupation of Iraq would create our own Lebanon. And so it has.

But we lost the debate of 2003. The warnings of opponents were brushed aside, and, with the Senate Democratic leadership behind him, Bush took us to war. Two years have now elapsed, and our leaders cannot even agree on whether we are winning or losing the war.

Vice President Cheney dismisses the insurgency as in its "last throes." CIA Director Porter Goss says, "They're not quite in their last throes, but ... they're very close to it." Sen. Joe Biden says Goss should talk to "his intelligence people on the ground." Biden told CBS: "They didn't suggest at all that it was near its last throes. Matter of fact, it's getting worse, not better."

John McCain says we face "a long hard slog ... It's going to be at least a couple of more years." Sen. Chuck Hagel, a McCain backer in 2000, says: "Things aren't getting better. They're getting worse ... The reality is that we're losing in Iraq."

From these conflicting assessments, reports from Iraq and polls showing three in five Americans consider the war a mistake and want to begin bringing the troops home, some somber conclusions can be reached.

We may not be losing the war, but U.S. policy is failing either to end the insurgency or to eradicate the insurgents. Yet, Bush appears unable or unwilling to escalate to win it, if that means adding troops to the 140,000 already there. But if escalation is not an option, and the present policy is not working, and U.S. support is weakening, we are in a hellish situation.