It's even better than that. As criminals are recaptured, they'll be turned over to Iraqi justice ... which is less likely to let them out again than American.

Uh, Ace? What's this talk about "whispering?"

We talk pretty loudly about victory in here, if anybody cares to listen.

In fact, I don't remember EVER having a conversation, officially or unofficially, that contemplated defeat. It's just not in the cards, not this time.

Either way, it's like Col. Kilgore once said.

"Someday, this war's gonna end."

Cheers,
Dave at Garfield Ridge

I didn't mean they're whispering "victory" as a goal, but rather "victory" as in "are we about to win this thing?"

And that has to be new. If it isn't, they've been cockeyed optimists for too long.

Hey Ace, can I toot my own horn here for a minute? I posted an analysis of our endgame back on March 15th.

http://www.tenfingers6strings.com/archives/000360.html

Not only are casualty figures down, but the Iraqi commando forces are engaging and handedly defeating insurgnets with regularity. I think a lot of pro-war people owe Mr. Rumsfeld and apology. His strategy of training an Iraqi security force to stand and fight on their own was the correct course of action. It didn't give him, or the administration, any short-term feathers in their hat, but thank God they chose the less political and more substantive strategy.

Oh. Important nuance. Thanks, Egon.

Cheers,
Dave at Garfield Ridge

JFK was fond of quoting (and he ought to know) that Victory has many fathers, and soon we'll be seeing the likes of John (I voted for it before I voted against it) Kerry, Ted (The Hero of Chappaquidick) Kennedy and Hillary (and then you smoked it?)Rodham/Rodham talking like they were Patton all along.

What was I thinking? More likely Liberals'll claim that there were no WMDs and that the Iraqui-Afghani terrorist infrastructure was "an economic system that was rotten to the core and that would've collapsed much sooner of its own accord if we hadn't engaged in bellicose rhetoric and meddled in their country's affairs, and that diverted trillions of much needed dollars that could've been used to alleivate poverty, build roads and schools and expand health for our people as well the rest of the earth Kubaya, instead of paying it all to the militaryindustrialcomplex rapacious dogs at Halliburton."

Iraqis will emerge the victors regardless of what the U.S. wants over there. I'll declare victory when American troops are back out of that war zone.