Captain Dave needs to lose the tunnel vision. Of course I only know what is going on in Iraq through the media. But that's not the point. In my post below, I deliberately offered no opinion on the state of our operations in Iraq, or our ultimate likelihood of success, however defined (my aside about troop levels was presented as just that, an aside not related to my main point). What I did offer was an opinion, heretofore unrefuted, about how this all fits into a broader context with which I AM familiar.
What Captain Dave fails to understand is what's going on in America. Win or lose, this Iraqi debacle (and the debacle to which I refer is the political one in the U.S., not any perceived one on the ground in Iraq) means that as far as "bold" action in the war against Radical Islam, we're done. This is it, folks. The 9/11 tailwind has pushed our foreign policy as far as it will go. Until another major terrorist attack occurs on our soil, which I assume we all agree is not something to look forward to simply because of the strategic opportunities with which it will provide us.
The war was just. The war was smart. It was sold in a stupid manner that has been harmful politically. Political harm results in broader strategic harm because it affects the administration's ability to pursue other necessary but perhaps not obvious policies in the future. And the administration is compounding the problem by engaging in rhetoric out-of-proportion to the task at hand, and incapable of realization. I don't see how anyone can argue with any of these points.
Rhetoric is important, because it will be thrown back in your face when you don't live up to it. And it will have the larger strategic effect I've already discussed. Pretty basic stuff.