Like a growing number of Americans, I'm finding it increasingly difficult to believe that the U.S. will be able to claim victory when our troops finally pull out of Iraq. The troop surge was supposed to give us a way to nurture and solidify the support of the Iraqi people for an elected government, and to make it possible for 'good' Iraqis to ostracize their violent brethren. But if protecting the peace requires walling off a Sunni neighborhood in Baghdad, as we've just done, then what hope is there for peace? Israel asked the same question of itself, and out of hopelessness and existential despair built a formidable barrier to separate Jew from Arab along the country's western border. Can we pretend that we are doing otherwise in Iraq, as walled enclaves separating Sunni from Shiite spring up all over Baghdad? Following is a trenchant view of the situation that I received in Friday's e-mail. It was written by one Josh Marshall and posted at TalkingPoints.com. While I do not agree with everything Marshall says, particularly concerning the stakes that are involved, it is not the usual over-the-top anti-American screed that we have come to expect from anti-war bloggers. I offer Marshall's comments immediately below, followed by my response: 'The War Is Lost' 'With Harry Reid's controversial 'war is lost' quote and with various other pols weighing in on whether we can 'win' or whether it's 'lost', it's a good time to consider what the hell we're actually talking about. Frankly, the whole question is stupid. Or at least it's a very stilted way of understanding what's happening, geared to guarantee President Bush's goal of staying in Iraq forever. A more realistic description is President Bush's long twilight struggle to see just how far he can go into one brown
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