Winning or Losing the War in Iraq - Neither
Reported by Donna - June 23, 2005
Today on Studio B with Shepard Smith, he discussed with Michael O'Hanlon from the Brookings Institute, what was really going on in the war in Iraq.
Smith pointed out that Senator Kennedy said it was a quaqmire and Secretary Rumsfeld said it wasn't, we certainly weren't losing the war in Iraq.
So O'Hanlon gave us the answer, we were neither winning the war, nor were we losing it.
O' Hanlon said we are not losing the war but he certainly disagreed with Vice President Dick Cheney who said that the insurgency was in it's 'last throes'.
Smith asked if they were growing more terrorists and O'Hanlon said that this was the problem. He said we were killing or arresting an average of 2,000 insurgents a month for the past 24 month period.
They continued to talk about the insurgency and O'Hanlon pointed out that the insurgency has continued to stay at the same strength it was six months ago.
But, the good news was, he added, is that the insurgency has no ideology to appeal to the Iraqi people. (And our ideology appeals to them?)
Comment: So if the insurgency is at the same strength it was six months ago, and we're not winning or losing the war -- what do you call that? A stalemate? I think that means we're in a deadlock, so in other words, our soldiers aren't coming home any time soon.
