The media can try and spin it as a retreat, but so long as it is an orderly withdrawl that results in a functioning Iraqi republic, history will remember it as an American victory.
The ultimate objective is to 'poison the well' that the terrorist emerge from. That 'well' is the Islamic fundamentalist state. A successful Iraqi republic, set in the heart of the dysfunctional Arab world, will be eat away at the core of medival Islam like acid. So, let's not fret too much about what the media thinks. They don't seem to realize that we can 'lose the battle' for Iraq, and still win the war.
The Prime Minister of Iraq was at the conference and he said that US troops should be able to leave by the end of next year. Very soon now, Iraq's security services will up to 75% capacity and by the end of the year, they will be fully trained up and capable of doing the job themselves, he said.
I think that is the US position as well.
I'm sure the terrorists will be fully taken out by that time as well.
The question remaining is what kind of permanent military footprint do we have in Iraq starting in 2007. A few good airbases, a few good army and marine bases would be about right.
I wouldn't be so hopeful about winning the war if the battle for Iraq were lost. While it's true that we still won the cold war after losing Vietnam (with the help of the MSM), I'd be quite discouraged about this war's progress after a MSM-inspired defeat in Iraq that could lead to lots of nasty scenarios. The main difference between a premature exit from Vietnam and one from Iraq is that the Islamofascists will pursue.
I like the way you put that, but is not the opposite true as well. Will medieval islam just toss in the towel...or will it undertake to subvert the newly democratic Iraq just as it does the rest of the world?
I suspect they are more likely to spin it as the local Iraqi population giving a vote of confidence to Murtha. 'Republicans shut down Democratic efforts to end unjust war; Iraqi's call for withdrawal'. Even Fox headlined the call for a timetable which is a direct political slap in the administrations face. The media and the dims could easily play this as "legitimate resistance", albeit political in nature, to the jack-boot, neocon, imperialist, war for oil and haliburton, poorly planned, fraudulent, illegal, torturous, unilateral, fascist attempt at world hegemony by the republicans.
The non-terrorist Iraqi population has been summarily ignored by the media throughout their doom and gloom reporting. Lets see if the media suddenly insists on hearing the voice of the people now that they've found quotable "representatives" who are providing "withdrawal timetable" headlines.