John Larson: “For the Bush White House, the real definition of victory has become 'anything they can get away with without taking…”

“For the Bush White House, the real definition of victory has become 'anything they can get away with without taking blame for defeat,' said the retired Army General William Odom, a national security official in the Reagan and Carter administrations. The plan is to run out the Washington clock between now and January 20, 2009, no matter the cost. A precipitous withdrawal is also a chimera, since American manpower, material and bases, not to mention our new Vatican-sized embassy, can't be drawn down overnight. The only real choice, everyone knows, is an orderly plan for withdrawal that will best serve American interests. The real debate must be over what that plan is. That debate can't happen as long as the White House gets away with falsifying reality, sliming its opponents and sowing hyped fears of Armageddon. The threat that terrorists in a civil war-torn Iraq will follow us home if we leave is as bogus as Saddam's mushroom clouds.”