Everything I needed to know about the chronic-naysayer element here on FR was demonstrated earlier today when a cast of the usual suspects showed up to portray the al-Sadr retreat from An Najaf as a Coalition defeat. It was another display of Administration weakness in their cynical, disingenuous world view.
These people aren't conducting themselves with integrity here in my opinion. They're b.s. artists looking to demoralize the forum members and create a facade of dissension to outside observers. It pisses me off they play games with real world events that have life or death stakes attatched. I have a sense the onslaught is going to get worse as the Summer proceeds toward election day. It's frustrating to have the one sanctuary I've found from the propaganda machine be poisoned by divisive jerks. The gloom and doom merchants had a defensable position mid-April - early May when events were indeed appearing to be spiralling out of control. That reality no longer exists, the situation is revealing itself to be increasingly optimistic. Folks who refuse to acknowledge victories when they occur are harboring unsavory agendas.
Remember when the ground war started and our troops were slowed by the sand storms...the offensive was suddenly bogged down. The word quagmire was used often by the merchants of defeat.