Frank Rich: "The actual reality is that we have lost in Iraq."

[jefferson_dem]

December 10, 2006
Op-Ed Columnist
The Sunshine Boys Can’t Save Iraq
By FRANK RICH

<SNIP>

This syndrome begins at the top, with the president, who has cut and run from reality in Iraq for nearly four years. His case is extreme but hardly unique. Take Robert Gates, the next defense secretary, who was hailed as a paragon of realism by Washington last week simply for agreeing with his Senate questioners that we’re “not winning” in Iraq. While that may be a step closer to candor than Mr. Bush’s “absolutely, we’re winning” of late October, it’s hardly the whole truth and nothing but. The actual reality is that we have lost in Iraq.

That’s what Donald Rumsfeld at long last acknowledged, between the lines, as he fled the Pentagon to make way for Mr. Gates. The most revealing passage in his parting memo listing possible options for the war was his suggestion that public expectations for success be downsized so we would “therefore not ‘lose.’ ” By putting the word lose in quotes, Mr. Rumsfeld revealed his hand: the administration must not utter that L word even though lose is exactly what we’ve done. The illusion of not losing must be preserved no matter what the price in blood.

The Iraq Study Group takes a similarly disingenuous tack. Its account of how the country Mr. Bush called a “grave and gathering danger” in September 2002 has devolved into a “grave and deteriorating” catastrophe today is unsparing and accurate. But everyone except the president knew this already, and that patina of realism evaporates once the report moves from diagnosis to prescription.

<SNIP>

The lesson in that is clear and sobering: As bad as things may seem now, they can yet become worse, and not just in Iraq. The longer we pretend that we have not lost there, the more we risk losing other wars we still may salvage, starting with Afghanistan.

The members of the Iraq Study Group are all good Americans of proven service to their country. But to the extent that their report forestalls reality and promotes pipe dreams of one last chance for success in this fiasco, it will be remembered as just one more delusional milestone in the tragedy of our age.

TIMES SELECT ARTICLE -> http://select.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/opinion/10rich.html

[Freedom_from_Chains]

1. The lesson in that is clear and sobering.

"As bad as things may seem now, they can yet become worse, and not just in Iraq"

This is something I have been saying for a long time, and while it is good news that there is at least some perception by the public that something is wrong, we still need to be very mindful that we still have a guy in the big chair that has little to no connection to reality.

[renate]

2. the article may be available for free here eventually:

http://www.nevadathunder.com/

Somebody here on DU posted that link a while ago; this extremely excellent site often has articles that the NY Times says are by subscription only.

It's not up yet, though.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. Full article up here

http://welcome-to-pottersville.blogspot.com/2006/12/sunshine-boys-cant-save-iraq.html

which is another good site for NY Times articles.

[WiseButAngrySara]

4. Let's stop pretending, America!

"The longer we pretend that we have not lost there, the more we risk losing other wars we still may salvage, starting with Afghanistan."

[Tansy_Gold]

5. What I said Friday. . . . . . .

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=2880662&mesg_id=2880662

We were wrong to invade Iraq, and we have lost there.


GMTA, Mr. Rich!


Tansy Gold