Victory in Iraq (again)

The Declarations of Victory in Iraq have emerged from bloggers, Organizations such as the College Republicans and from noted Accurate-tician Bill Kristol, "we've won the war".

Zombie Times declared 11/22/08, in solidarity with others, as Victory in Iraq Day (VI Day). The College Republicans want the following answered: Now, the only question is will President Obama purposefully force defeat on our troops in Iraq, or will he let our military finish the job?

The obtuse attempts at connecting the Iraq War with World War II continue. The Iraq Invasion and Occupation are not WWII or Vietnam but mainly analogous, as I've often posted, to the small wars of the 19th century and America's involvement in the Philippines.

And all the protestations of victory in Iraq on 11/22/08 have not stopped guys from dying. Nor does the fallacious analogy that more Americans died in Chicago than Iraq, hold up to scrutiny. Cook County has over 5 million residents, roughly 180,000 Americans are in Iraq so the sample sizes are quite different.

The reasons those in their comfortable homes in the States are declaring victory in Iraq is two-fold. The smaller part is an attempt to salvage for Bush something other than absolute ridicule for all time, the larger part is to use Iraq against Obama. By declaring Victory (again) the set-up has been made to blame him if Iraq were to fall into fractional fighting, which is almost assured as the Kurds attempt to gain a Nation-State or if the extremists on the islamic religious divide decide to bomb one of the otherside's mosques again.

But, when you find yourself absorbed in an ideological struggle to control the awesome Apparatus of the US Government everything is acceptable. And the problem is all the Declarations won't comfort those who lose their loved ones after the War has been "Won".