Pre-Hatched Eggs

"We're winning in Iraq." That's another slogan that the pro-war forces have spitting out a mile a minute of late. Unfortunately, for me, all it does is conjure up images of all that rhetoric that came out of the Johnson and Nixon administrations during Vietnam. I mean, weren't we always pretty much winning over there, too? In fact, I don't think we ever lost a battle, for Christ. I just wish I could get the people who weren't around during Vietnam (and some of the ones that were, frankly) to realize that, yes, there will always be a big difference between "winning" and having won - a big difference. We haven't won anything yet, folks......................................Yes, the violence is down. But it's like I've been saying over and over and over again. There are numerous competing explanations, other than the surge (which, sure, has probably contributed somewhat; increased checkpoints, etc.), that could account for this lessening; ceasefires, the results of ethnic cleansing, the buying off of Sunni militants, etc.. I mean, sure, we can probably keep the lid on this situation for as long as our army holds out (yes, that's the real strategic challenge here). But, really, until the Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds (not to mention the myriad of sub-groupings) completely bury the hatchet (yes, preferably not in each other's backs) and we get the vast bulk of our men out of there, "winning in Iraq" will remain exactly what it is; namely, another in a long line of platitudes.