Winning isn't Everything; It is the Only Thing

Via Matthew Yglesias, we have Fred Kagan, Iraq War Proponent, outlining how he's a hopeless fool.

How We'll Know When We've Won: "Virtually everyone who wants to win this war agrees: Success will have been achieved when Iraq is a stable, representative state that controls its own territory, is oriented toward the West, and is an ally in the struggle against militant Islamism, whether Sunni or Shia. This has been said over and over. Why won't war critics hear it? Is it because they reject the notion that such success is achievable and therefore see the definition as dishonest or delusional? Is it because George Bush has used versions of it and thus discredited it in the eyes of those who hate him? Or is it because it does not offer easily verifiable benchmarks to tell us whether or not we are succeeding? There could be other reasons . . . "

Yes, yes, yes, and yes.

An Accountability Moment?

United States Economy - Economic Trends - Politics - Democrats - Republicans - New York Times: "This year looks unusual . . ., with slow growth likely despite the infusion of substantial tax rebates from an election-year stimulus plan. If that slow growth produces a Republican defeat in November, it will be a rare instance of economic accountability for a party with a long history of delivering meager income gains for most American families."

Hat tip to Mark Thoma, who comments: "No matter how much it might help Democrats, I'm not hoping for a recession. But if problems must occur, accountability would be nice."

Early Nominees for Words of the Year

Calculated Risk: Early Nominees for Word(s) of the Year: "Reader Matt suggests 'perfect storm' for 2008. He has seen the words perfect storm used to describe the results of 'airlines, food, oil, foreclosures, condo sales, and credit problems'."

Concern in the Twilight

dissent in comments: "My concern for this country is that we don't have the social cohesiveness to manage this decline in a manner that is both wise and fair. Our democracy is deeply wounded, our working class in a downward spiral, and our elites corrupted and disengaged from the wider polity."

"It's a perfect storm."

digby at Hullabaloo: "The GOP is imploding and while their candidate is formidable, the zeitgeist has passed him by. After eight years of Republican rule, massive numbers of Americans believe the country is on the wrong track, the economy is in recession and we have an extremely unpopular Republican war. And the Democrats are using new technologies to raise massive sums of money and bring voters and activists into the system in huge numbers, efficiently dispatching them to campaign and get out the vote. Meanwhile, completely on their own, citizens are participating through blogs, youtubes and social networking sites completely outside the system. The right has nothing like this.

"This election will not be a cakewalk --- the Republicans have 25 years of internalized philosophy and some primitive prejudices to work with. But in 2008, after Bush, that just not going to be enough. The forces of change in this election run far deeper than the presidential campaigns."

Losing an unprovoked war, combined with rampant corruption and economic collapse, will bring about a political reaction.

Economy rolls down hill

Retailing Chains Caught in a Wave of Bankruptcies - New York Times

even if John McCain becomes president

Frank Rich of the NY Times watches the Iraq-Petraeus hearings: ". . . by week’s end, I became more convinced than ever that in January we’ll have a new policy that includes serious withdrawals and serious conversations with Mr. Maliki’s pals in Iran, even if John McCain becomes president."

The emphasis, of course, is mine. How stupid and complacent does Frank Rich have to be to keep his job? I guess this complacent. For years, the moron pundits told us the Bush would be leaving Iraq, real soon. The Friedman Unit -- the war will be won or lost in the next six months -- is now such a joke that no one will utter it. Now, we are assurred that even John "100 years in Iraq" McCain will withdraw. (Last week, Frank was telling us the Democrats should not be drawing attention to the McCain "100 years" statement -- he didn't meant that.