Winning!

Good news, we're winning in Iraq! Of course, according to Michael Yon we've been busy winning since August of 2005. The interesting thing is that "winning" is used as a present participle, which implies a progressive aspect. So if we were "winning" in 2005, and we are "winning" now, we must be "winning" even more.

It is curious that we can be constantly "winning" in Iraq, whether violence increases or decreases, whether political progress is made or retrenched, but the final end state of "win," i.e. that which we are presumably progressing toward with all this "winning" remains elusively undefined. When asked at what point we could remove more troops, Petraeus was evasive according to Robert Burns of the AP:

In exchanges with several senators, Petraeus refused to say when he thought it would be safe to resume troop reductions beyond July without risking "fragile and reversible" security gains.

Asked Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Armed Services Committee: "Could that be a month, could that be two months?"

Petraeus began to respond: "Sir, it could be less than that. It could be. ..."

Levin: "Could it be more than that?"

Petraeus: "It could be more than that. Again, it's when the conditions are met that we can make a recommendation for further reductions."

Levin: "Could it be three months?"

Petraeus: "Sir, again, at the end of the period of consolidation and evaluation. ..."

If we don't know when we're done, we'll never be done. Iraq is like the Winchester Mystery House of wars. Maybe a ghost told W. that he would die if the Iraq war ever ended.