What Does Victory Look Like?
November 29th, 2006
So Bush says we are going to stay until the mission is complete, even as Sadarists leave the Iraqi coalition government. I have a question though: what defines victory? This isn’t snark or sarcasm — this is a legitimate question. I have no idea what defines victory in the minds of the right wing war supporters. It cannot be democracy, because there have now been two rounds of elections that went pretty well and there is the form of parliamentary democracy in the country. If it is “security” or “securing the democracy”, then someone needs to explain what that would look like. A given level of violent deaths? An Iraqi Army able to defeat the militias? The defeat of the militias? Without a solid definition of what victory looks like we as a people have no means to judge the steps our government is taking to achieve that victory. Just as importantly, we have no way to say to our politicians: “Okay, we have reached the point you said was victory — now come home or give us a damn good explanation for why you won’t”. In other words, no clear definition of victory can mean never leaving, or not leaving as long as one political faction thinks it has an advantage by staying. And that is not acceptable in a functioning democracy.
So: just what, precisely, constitutes victory? And why won’t the Bush Administration answer this simple question?
Categories: Iraq, Politics | 3 Comments
