What Iraq War?

Debate has been described as a war of words.  Using that metaphor, the ability to define the terms of the debate is the equivalent of gaining the high ground. Right now, those intending to keep us in Iraq have taken the metaphorical high ground without much of a battle. That's got to change. 

From now on, we have to refuse to talk about the "war" in Iraq except in the past tense. We are not currently at war in Iraq. (In know that's a huge shock — shake it off, Champ.) But the fact is that we WON the war in Iraq years ago. Saddam is dead, his forces scattered (foolishly, by us) to the winds. We are currently occupying Iraq. Our opposition there are, for the most part, Iraqis who are either resisting a foreign occupation (as we would, in the same circumstances) or opportunists jockeying for position in the aftermath of the war we won. But there is no more Iraq War. There is only an Iraq Occupation. 

By using the correct term, "occupation," we undermine the conservative theme that we have to somehow "win" this war. Been there, done that, got the bumpersticker. We also undercut the disgraceful McCain talking point addressed in my previous post, that only by "winning" in Iraq can we bring our soldiers home with honor. And whereas it's easy to talk about "supporting the troops" when they're on a mission with an objective, it's not so easy to support the endless occupation of another country when there is no clear objective. $10 billion a month. Thousands of lives. For what? An open-ended occupation of a sovereign nation that has called for us to set a timetable for withdrawal. Sounds pretty unsupportable, doesn't it? 

Those are the terms we should be using. We've already won the war on the ground in Iraq. Now if we ever want to get our boys and girls out of harms' way and home to their families, we need to win the battle of words against a vicious enemy — those here at home who would keep America embroiled in endless conflict.  

Let's recognize that no matter how big a mistake the Iraq invasion was, it was a military success. We won the war. Now let's bring its aftermath — the unwelcome occupation of Iraq, to an end.