2007 National Humanities Medal winner says about War on Iraq-WE WON!!!!

[underpants]

President Bush Awards Influential Intellectuals <--- :rofl:
http://frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=59226C90-13AD-41D9-9B8F-8A0D0C344D6C

Yesterday, President George W. Bush awarded the prestigious National Humanities Medals for 2007 to Stephen H. Balch, scholar and advocate: Victor Davis Hanson, military historian and author....

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/11/when_good_news_is_no_news.html

Over the last few months, the U.S. military forced Sunni insurgents in Anbar to quit fighting. This enemy, in the heart of the so-called Sunni Triangle, had been responsible for most American casualties in the war and was the main cause of unrest in Iraq. Even more unexpectedly, some of the defeated tribes then joined in an alliance of convenience with their American victors to chase al-Qaida from Iraq's major cities.

As President Bush recently told U.S. troops about Anbar province: "It was once written off as lost. It is now one of the safest places in Iraq."


Why this abrupt amnesia about Iraq, given a radical drop in American casualties and entire cities now largely free from serial violence?

Many anti-war critics are so invested in the notion of the Iraq war as the "worst" something or other in U.S. history that they cannot accept the radical turnaround after over four years of war.

Other opponents have simply changed their argument from "Iraq is lost" to "Even if we do win, it will not have been worth the cost." Really? WHO says that? Name someone Either way, good news from the front seems to translate into no news.

The military - unlike the Bush administration - is strangely silent about its recent successes. The caution is not just due to uncertainty over whether the Sunni Triangle will stay won for good.

Instead, the September testimony of Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and the reaction to it - whether the "General Betray Us" Moveon.org ad or Sen. Hillary Clinton's jab that to believe the general's testimony required a "willing suspension of disbelief" - reminded officers how Iraq will loom large in election-cycle domestic politics. Getting drawn into such politicking is something responsible military leaders try to avoid. :eyes:

Of course, we don't know the final outcome in Iraq, given the remaining problems of Shiite militias and diehard al-Qaidists - and the question of our own remaining resolve.Mmm no our resolve has nothing to do with it

[TwilightGardener]

1. Oh boy!! What did we win?? What's our prize?? Did we get the oil yet?

[underpants]

3. we won the proof needed to continue yet another highly successful Bush vision thing

:sarcasm:

[Fredda Weinberg]

2. I'm okay w/a figleaf. If * needs cover to duck, let's get out of there! n/t

[Martin Eden]

4. OK, then declare victory and come home.

Of course, there never was any intent by Cheney/Bush/BigOil to leave Iraq and there still isn't. Permanent military bases and effective control of the oil were always the primary goals.

[Demeter]

5. The Classic Pyrrhic Victory

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrrhic_victory

"A Pyrrhic victory is a victory with devastating cost to the victor. The phrase is an allusion to King Pyrrhus of Epirus, whose army suffered irreplaceable casualties when he defeated the Romans during the Pyrrhic War at Heraclea in 280 BC and Asculum in 279 BC. After the latter battle, Plutarch relates in a report by Dionysius:

“ The armies separated; and, it is said, Pyrrhus replied to one that gave him joy of his victory that one more such victory would utterly undo him. For he had lost a great part of the forces he brought with him, and almost all his particular friends and principal commanders; there were no others there to make recruits, and he found the confederates in Italy backward. On the other hand, as from a fountain continually flowing out of the city, the Roman camp was quickly and plentifully filled up with fresh men, not at all abating in courage for the loss they sustained, but even from their very anger gaining new force and resolution to go on with the war. <1> ”

In both of Pyrrhus's victories, the Romans lost more men than Pyrrhus did. However, the Romans had a much larger supply of men from which to draw soldiers, so their losses did less damage to their war effort than Pyrrhus's losses did to his.

The report is often quoted as "Another such victory over the Romans and we are undone." While it is most closely associated with a military battle, the term is used by analogy in fields such as business, politics, law, literature, and sport to describe any similar struggle which is ruinous for the victor, such as the USFL v. NFL lawsuit or the Conservative Party's victory in the 1992 General Election in the United Kingdom."



I hereby designate once and forever, George Walker Bush is KING PYRRUS!

[underpants]

6. Excellent phrase

I had never heard of that before. Thanks

[Demeter]

7. My Pleasure

NO matter what we do, the Greeks did it, said it, or thought about it first!