How Do We Define "Winning" The War In Iraq?

During a meeting with conservative journalists in the Oval Office Wednesday 10-25 (would he dare meet with any other kind?), President Bush answered questions and displayed his frustration with trying to keep the American public interested in the war in Iraq. The main question is, "how do you know we are winning when we don't seem to be making progress?"

Do you tell the people how many enemy are killed? In October of 2006, nearly a hundred American troups (and two or three from other Coalition countries) have been killed, while only a few "insurgents" can be counted among the dead ... the rest are over a thousand Iraqi civilians.

"We have made a conscious effort not to be a body-count team," Bush said. The fear is that the public will react as it did in the Vietnam era, where rising body counts turned the public against the war. The Bush Administration is not only afraid of the effect of telling exactly how many of our forces and how many innocent civilians are dying -- they have made it against the law to photograph flag-draped caskets returning from the war.

But even if we don't know the real numbers of those killed, that death toll is not stopping sectarian violence or attacks on American troups.

How about judging by how much of the country we control after three years of invasion and occupation? Apparently, in some significant measure the insurgents and the sectarian killers are in control in the country, and the fate of the American mission is in their hands.

American forces simply do not seem to be winning the war — on anyone’s terms.

"The American people were solidly behind this when you went in and you toppled the Taliban, when you go in and you topple Saddam," conservative columnist Mark Steyn said to the president. "But when it just seems to be a kind of thankless, semi-colonial, policing, defensive operation, with no end — I mean, where is the offense in this?"

"If we can’t win, I’ll pull us out," the president said. "If I didn’t think it was noble and just and we can win, we’re gone. I can’t — I’m not going to keep those kids in there and have to deal with their loved ones. I can’t cover it up when I meet with a family who’s lost a child. I cry, I weep, I hug. And I’ve got to be able to look them in the eye and say, we’re going to win. I have to be able to do that. And I’m not a good faker."

However, Bush routinely refuses to meet with the families of killed soldiers.

And finally, humorist Will Durst gives us his take:

President Bush said this week when he veered away from STAY THE COURSE: "We are winning in Iraq and will continue to win." And you'd better hope we do, because if this is winning, you really REALLY don't want to see what losing looks like.