The Emperor Has No Clothes

A recent secret report from the Marine Corp Chief of Intelligence, issued last month, states that the Anbar province in Iraq is facing almost insurmountable trouble and that the US has politically lost the war in that region. In other words, it's lost the battle for hearts and minds.

This report has apparently made the rounds in the Pentagon, Army, and National Security circles. While it's impossible to say without seeing the report, it appears that it has credibility because it takes a very balanced look at the situation and comes to some very bleak conclusions. As a result, there is evidence that it might be serving as a needed wake up call to the 'powers that be' that simply staying the course is insufficient to winning the war. If this is simply a war of attrition, the US will lose. We have to make it something more, and so far we've failed at that.

Of course, anyone who saw Dick Cheney on Meet the Press the other day has no doubt that whatever changes, if any, are happening behind the scene, the word from the top is to toe the party line. Stay the course. I wonder when somebody will hit upon the just the right argument and phrasing that will strike home with the American people, and let them know the Emperor has no clothes.