AlterNet: If Dems Talk About 'Winning' in Iraq, Everybody Loses

[marmar]

If Dems Talk About 'Winning' in Iraq, Everybody Loses

By Ira Chernus, AlterNet. Posted April 10, 2008.

The Petraeus hearings trapped Democrats into talking about whether the 'surge' is working, not that the U.S. has no right to be there.



It was supposed to be a "cakewalk." General Petraeus would come to Congress, armed with his favorite charts showing that the "surge" had dramatically reduced violence in Iraq. He would earn universal acclaim for his plan to "pause" troop reductions from July until after the election -- the same plan that John McCain counts on to help him win that election.

When it comes to Iraq, though, the Bush administration's cakewalks never seem to turn out as planned. The renewed violence of these last weeks, and the prospect of more to come, gave war critics ample ammunition for a powerful counterattack. Congressional Democrats did a fine job of pinning the general under their verbal fire, trapping him in his own rosy but increasingly unbelievable promises of "progress."

Yet who was the trapper, and who really got trapped? The political fallout from events like this week's Petraus-Crocker hearings can be a long time coming. It's far too soon to draw any conclusion.

Though Petraeus appeared to be trapped, the debate about military success or failure in Iraq, which the Dems engaged in with such relish, also caught them in a trap, with the general's testimony as the bait. Because the debate is not literally about the level of violence in Iraq. "Has the 'surge' worked?" is really a symbolic way of asking: "Would you rather believe that America is a winner or a loser?" And in any battle over patriotic symbolism, the Republicans always seem to have the bigger guns.

So the Democrats would have been smarter to refuse the bait, to insist that this is not an old-fashioned World War II- style conflict, where force can produce a clear-cut winner. There's still time to make that strategic switch. Then they could refocus the debate on the crucial truths: We have no right to be in Iraq. The sooner we get out the sooner we can begin to heal the terrible damage the war has done to us here at home. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/81574/