bluesman,
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You have just described the single most important failure of the entire effort.
NOTHING else compares to the primacy of public opinion - American, Iraqi, and World. And we've done dismally on that battlefield. Our troops are matchless, our system, for all its flaws, is superior in every way.
But the war for the minds of combatants and citizens has been fought by one side only...and it wasn't ours.
There were so many, many things that could and should have been done to shore up our own people, to neutralize the defeatism of the opposition party, to bring world leaders and their peoples to the understanding that America must not fail and to convince the enemy that they could not win. But we thought that beating the forces in the field would wrap up our problem, and then democracy would flourish.
So we beat 'em. Then, we had to beat 'em again. And AGAIN. And we've been beating them every single day, but not on the battlefield that counts most. The most crucial piece of key terrain is heavily garrisoned by the enemy, and our heaviest artillery is useless against the fortifications they've erected on the highest of high ground: the human spirit and its twin peak, the human mind.
Our own people are now so used to seeing the war as a hopeless quagmire that when the Majority Leader in the US Senate declares our defeat, instead of an instantaneous and enraged reaction from our People that drives him from office in disgrace, we get a call to debate the matter.
We can only lose if we choose defeat, and more and more of our own people and the people of the world are choosing to lose. It's heart-breaking, and the blame goes to our leadership, from both both parties, as well as a largely ignorant public, and the media that feed them a steady diet of defeatism.
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sure. completely agree with you. the info/PR war is the prime aspect of this entire war. as president, bush has bungled this utterly, both for the national and the international audience.
the american unity and willingness to sacrifice was wasted upon getting bush his tax cuts and his urge for americans to "buy and spend more." this is the first war i'm aware of where we've cut, and not raised, taxes. LBJ found out, too, what happens when one tries to get both guns and butter.
also, the hardest part about being a democracy is, how does one stay loyal to the cause and fight the war to a victorious conclusion, while also keeping a tradition of democratic debate?
while holding the course in any war is important, the way the war is prosecuted (or even if it should be prosecuted) should be questioned continuously. after all, as we saw in 2004, 2005, 2006, and today- our strategy in iraq has changed dramatically- and it was thanks to those who believed that the original method of just staying the course was not a good one.
by the way, regarding this in particular:
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We can only lose if we choose defeat,
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that doesn't just apply to us, but to the iraqis themselves. in fact, i'd say it applies MORE to them than to us, seeing as how we're no longer running their country for them. so...what happens when we want iraq to succeed more than THEY do?