What Does Win Mean?

Well over three thousand Americans dead in Iraq. Apparently, that’s not enough so we are sending 20,000 more targets over there. Maybe with the increased targets, the insurgents will have more practice and get better at killing. We should be bringing our soldiers home, not adding to the casualty list.

Damn, that’s a liberal leftist thing to say. It might even be a quotable quote from the Democrat Party.

One thing I notice in all the debates is a lack of a “win” plan. On the left is “Bush lied to get us in the War and we need to get out” and on the right is “Bush was right to try to bring a democratic state to the Middle East and end terrorism”.

Everything since has been "Bush is wrong" or "Bush is right".

Let me be upfront. We were wrong for taking on Iraq. Hindsight is 20/20, but I even had my doubts prior to our invasion. Now I know we made the wrong decision.

But that doesn’t take away from the fact that we are there, made a mess of the country, and need to “win”. The question is “What does win mean?” Is ousting Sadam a win? If so, we won. How about forming a democratically elected government? If so, we won.

The bigger question is "How long do we give the new Iraqi government a chance to form a self-sustaining government?" Six more months? A year? Five years? And if the new Iraqi government turns into an iron-fisted dictatorship or theocracy, did we lose the war?

And is winning everything?

As long as we debate along partisan lines about exactly what we are doing in Iraq, we'll never win. Even if we withdraw our troops tomorrow and the new Iraqi government manages to establish a thriving democratic government in spite of us, we still lost the war.

We're there so now how do we ensure that we leave with a solid Iraqi govenment in place that will best serve the Iraqi people? Bush failed to give a clear plan. The Democrats fail even worse.