Charting A New Course In Iraq Messaging

Democrats are trying yet another messaging strategy in their on-going attempts to dodge the "surrender monkey" moniker. Here's the latest , courtesy of Bob Casey (D-featist-PA):

A Democratic senator on Saturday accused President Bush and congressional Republicans of hindering his party's attempts to chart a new course in Iraq even though U.S. troops are fighting violence "they cannot possibly resolve." (AP)

Got it. "Hindering his party's attempts to chart a new course." That course, of course, is not winning, but returning home in defeat, as is evidenced by Casey's predicating of the "new course" on the supposition that the violence in Iraq cannot possibly resolved.

I've never before come across a violence that cannot possibly be resolved .

The violence of WWI and WWII were resolved. The violence of the Infitada was resolved, the violence of Northern Ireland was resolved, of Pol Pot, of Algeria, of the Iran/Iraq war. Peloponnesian , Actium, Germania, Persian -- all in their turn violent, all in their turn resolved. There is, quite simply, no violence that cannot be be put an end to.

The key word to Casey's supposition, then, is "they." It's not that the violence cannot be resolved, it's that U.S. troops are powerless to resolve it. We have met our match. We quelled the Nazis, we fought the Chinese and North Koreans to the point that they had to lay down their arms, we even fought our brothers in the South to the point that the violence was resolved. And victory was in easy reach in Vietnam before Casey's predecessors, not our military, ended the war.

So what is it about our enemy in Iraq that makes them the only enemy we have ever faced that we cannot possibly defeat? That they are Islamic? Is that it? That their god drives them to levels our troops cannot achieve? Is it their weaponry? Their training? The support of the Iraqi people?

No. It's just that our enemy the great good fortune of fighting Americans when Dems first desperately needed power, then got that power. And now Casey is all mad because the mean old GOP won't let him chart his new course to ignominy.

The Dems are condemned to continue struggling in their messaging conundrum, because there really is no way to cover the concept of "surrender" with cleverly crafted words. It can't be done without blaming the troops, shaming America or giving the superior position to the Islamists.

There's an easier message of course: Stay the course, face the enemy, be Americans and win.