Jonah Goldberg rightly castigates Democrats who are attempting to have it both ways on the Iraqi Occupation, but in doing so, he lets his rhetoric run away with him:
The details are obviously complicated. The normal rules of war don’t fully apply, since the insurgents use terror tactics, don’t wear uniforms, etc. But, we didn’t ask that every German be put on trial who had American blood on his hands after World War II and we didn’t ask that every North Vietnamese soldier face a tribunal.
Oh wait, that’s because we bugged out, just like the Democrats want to now.
We didn’t put every German on trial, but it obviously had nothing to do with bugging out since we are still occupying Germany. Or defending them against the Soviet Union, whatever.
Perhaps that’s the line we need to take to convince the American people that the Iraqi Occupation is necessary and proper. We’re defending the Iraqi people against a revival of Abbasid expansionism.
It’s not that winning isn’t an option, it’s that winning, as defined by the Bush administration, isn’t a possibility.