Let's Lick Our Balls While We Still Have Them!

The great debate is heating up. Now that we have presumptive candidates for both parties (yes Hillary, you really are not going to be the nominee, even though you inferred that something could happen in June), one candidate states that "he will not surrender" which implies that the other candidates plan is nothing less than complete surrender.

The former is holding firm that we have been successful and can "win". The latter has realistically recognized that this war, like Vietnam is not one to be won or lost.

When I think about all of this, a couple of questions come to mind. First, ignoring "Mission Accomplished", what is the new definition of "win"? Is the goal to create an American style democracy? If so, I believe winning will be alot like two drunks arguing over whether blended or single malt whiskey is better while trying to break a pinata during 50 mph wind gusts with a piece of licorice; one will never convince the other, the target will never stop moving and they don't have the tools to get the job done.

The next question I have is if we begin to bring the troops home before the Iraqi government gets it shit together, is this surrender or intelligent reality. McCain can call it whatever he wants but just as the Clinton campaign seems unwilling to recognize the math of the primary numbers, to surrender is to relinquish something, to give it up and yes it can also mean to abandon.

My take is that we cannot relinquish or give up something we do not own and how can we state that we are abandoning Iraq. Every rational being knows that the withdrawal of the fighting force will not be like it was when the last helicopter left the roof of our embassy in Vietnam in 1975. Our troops will leave harms way in Iraq only to move more significant numbers into harms way in Afghanistan. Our $$ will continue to support the reconstruction and advisers will remain to assist the government in it's feeble attempt to unite two historic opponents and placate another.

Between 1973, when peace talks began to signal a real end, and 1975 506 American Soldiers perished in Vietnam. If we wait, as McCain suggests, until 2013, we will witness the waste of life of more of our young men and women because someones testicles got in the way, not because we won.