It may be too complex a notion for my conservative Neanderthal brain to take in but, correct me if I’m wrong.

When we’re talking about war, isn’t there usually someone who wins and someone who loses?

And if you’re an American, shouldn’t you like, you know, be rooting for our side to win? Or is that too much to ask of a Congressman?

I realize that my first question has many permutations to it. After all, from a military standpoint, there is little doubt that we “won” the Viet Nam war. Every time the North Vietnamese met our guys in stand up, open battles, they got the crap kicked out of them. But in the end, the general consensus became that we “lost” the war because of the failure of our political goals.

I guess it’s one thing to make a strategic assessment about whether or not we lost in Viet Nam. But it is quite another thing to say this:

Representative John Murtha, the Pennsylvania Democrat who has come to national prominence since his call for a quick withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, said Thursday night that he worries about “a slow withdrawal which makes it look like there’s a victory.”

Appearing at a town meeting in Arlington, Virginia, with fellow Democratic Rep. James Moran, Murtha said, “A year ago, I said we can’t win this militarily, and I got all kinds of criticism.” Now, Murtha told the strongly antiwar audience, “I worry about a slow withdrawal which makes it look like there’s a victory when I think it should be a redeployment as quickly as possible and let the Iraqis handle the whole thing.”

I suppose Murtha could claim that he’s talking about an al Qaeda “victory” as a result of a “slow withdrawal” but that’s not how I read it. It appears the Congressman is complaining that since his policy of “redeployment as quickly as possible” has been ignored that he’s worried that the United States will “appear” to win the war once our stated goal of establishing Iraqi self-government and an improvement in the security situation is achieved.

Since he’s so worried about even the appearance of the US winning the war, might we employ a little logic and ask the blowhard whether he would rather it appear that we are losing?

This would, in fact, reveal what Murtha was really trying to say; that no matter what, we’ve lost the war and any evidence to the contrary is simply administration spin. This would appear to be the Democrat’s war critique going into mid term elections this November. Their point being is that the war is lost, the men died in vain, Bush used the war as an excuse to gather unto himself extraordinary powers, and besides that, he says mean things about Democrats when we agree with al Qaeda.

Here’s al Qaeda’s #2 Ayman Zawahiri who also has a message for President Bush:

“Bush, you must admit that you have been defeated in Iraq and that you are being defeated in Afghanistan and that you will soon be defeated in Palestine,” Zawahiri said, according to a translation of his statement by the Washington-based SITE Institute.

Zawahiri, an Egyptian who is al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden’s top lieutenant, warned Americans that “as long as you do not deal with Muslim nations with understanding and respect, you will still go from one disaster to another. And your calamity will not end, unless you leave our lands and stop stealing our resources and stop supporting the bad rulers in our countries.”

So to sum up, Murtha is worried that by achieving our stated goals and pulling out it will appear to be a victory for the US while Doctor Death from al Qaeda is bragging that an American pullout will be a defeat for the United States.

I hope Representative Murtha found some comfort in the words contained in Doctor Zawahiri’s statement. Between he and al Qaeda (and the press), I have no doubt that somehow, someway, the traitorous wretches will be able to spin their way to making Iraq into a defeat for the United States.

UPDATE

Goldstein at his absolute, lucid best:

Of course, this is a rhetorical ploy—another instance of an attempt to have perception trump reality—as the Democrat leadership (led by their military hero poster child, Jack Murtha) rushed around in advance of the latest elections (and in anticipation of the likely strong voter turnout) demanding a draw down of US troops on the patently false assertion that the war in Iraq was being lost, even while they knew such a draw down was inevitable (and was tied to a position of strength, and to conditions on the ground, rather than some arbitrary time table).

This is postmodern moment—where reality is granted to those who control the dominant narrative and assert its truthfulness. That such can be done purposely and cynically—and with full knowledge that the narrative is manufactured to persuade rather than to inform—is simply part of the game.

Read the whole thing. Now.