Moving The Bar

I didn't want to let this article go by without comment. Once again, the administration is moving the bar for what constitutes success in Iraq. It became clear months ago that they would make sure that no matter what the military result in Iraq, victory would be declared, military, political and otherwise. They've always played fast and loose with language, why should the term "victory" be exempt from the Rovian blender.

The Bush administration is significantly lowering expectations of what can be achieved in Iraq, recognizing that the United States will have to settle for far less progress than originally envisioned during the transition due to end in four months, according to U.S. officials in Washington and Baghdad.

The United States no longer expects to see a model new democracy, a self-supporting oil industry or a society in which the majority of people are free from serious security or economic challenges, U.S. officials say.

"What we expected to achieve was never realistic given the timetable or what unfolded on the ground," said a senior official involved in policy since the 2003 invasion. "We are in a process of absorbing the factors of the situation we're in and shedding the unreality that dominated at the beginning."

Absorbing the factors of the situation, huh? That's good. Only took you 2 1/2 years and 1800 dead. Nice job. Of course when the war's detractors said anything resembling this they were labeled anti-American and partisan naysayers. Now that "administration officials" are admitting it's the case, will war apologists conce...apol...admi...nevermind, forget I asked.