Bush adopts VFR’s definition of victory

All along, Bush and his supporters have defined victory in terms of establishing a democracy and having elections, while I have torn my hair out saying, no, victory means defeating the enemy and creating a government that has the force to sustain its own existence against violent internal opposition, which would enable the U.S. forces to leave. Well, here’s a rare moment of rationality from the president on this issue, from his press conference the other day:

In terms of troop levels, obviously, we’ll have the troop levels necessary to complete the mission. And that mission is to enable Iraq to defend herself from terrorists—homegrown or terrorists that come in from outside of the country.

Now, perhaps Bush has been defining success in these correct terms all along. But if he has, I sure haven’t heard it. All I’ve heard from him and his people has been the mantra of democracy, elections, democracy, elections. Even when the much-touted decisive battle of the war was being fought a couple of months ago in Fallujah, the main benefit from the battle, according to the administration and pro-Bush columnists, was not that it would destroy the enemy’s ability to fight, but that it would enable the elections to proceed.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at January 28, 2005 02:00 AM | Send