The Surge: Did it Work? Are We Winning Now?

Republicans are horrible at governing, but waging a campaign--political or ideological--that they can manage. In the case of the Presidential election, I'm just hoping they're low on mojo (which would appear to be true), but when it comes to framing issues, they haven't lost their magic touch.

Months ago, I started hearing the phrase "the surge is working," and "we're winning in Iraq," from characters like Sean Hannity. Not a lot of people were saying this, but it was becoming more and more common from the pundit class. Eventually, the meme spread like a virus. Now, it would seem everyone except Barack Obama (and lefty bloggers like me) either believe both phrases to be true, or at least are thinking more positively about the whole Iraq thing.

From my perspective, George Bush's, John McCain's, Rush Limbaugh's and Sean Hannity's whole idea of success or winning in Iraq is that no (or less) Americans die over there. I'm all for that happenstance by the way, but is that really a definition of "winning?" That they aren't killing us right now? By that logic, they wouldn't be killing us at all if we weren't there!

I ask, because so far, none of those right wing blow-holes has explained what "winning" even means. How do you have a "victory" in an occupation? The reasons for going there, the reasons for staying there, and the objective and results of the (year-long) "surge" change from day to day. Politicians say our actions should be dictated by "conditions on the ground." What's happening is, our story changes according to conditions on the ground. Like everything else in this sorry administration, the facts are fixed around a storyline, and whatever has a ring of "truthiness" to it is sold as the real story. Until tomorrow, when something else sounds better. Isn't the rest of America as tired of this as I am?

[Excerpt]

Note to MSM: Stop Saying "The Surge Worked" and the Occupation is a War

. . .I'm so tired of so many in the MSM following the Republican talking point that the surged "worked." This meme has taken the situation in Iraq and twisted them it a pretzel - a point well understood by Obama, as evidenced by his recent interview with Brian Williams. A number of analysts have pointed out that many factors have led to the decrease in violence. Rachel Maddow recently pointed out on her show and on MSNBC, that the Iraqis themselves stated four factors, none of which included the surge. . .

Read more at: OEN