Just Rename It

A country withdraws their combat troops from battle, implicitly and not explicitly declaring victory. Days later, the tens of thousands of troops that remain at the battlefield get into skirmishes, and many are killed. Were these troops not in battle? Regardless of this point the President marches onward. He has renamed the Iraq War and created artificial milestones for us to celebrate. It doesn't matter to him, or to anyone else in the media, that these milestones are not connected with anything in reality. They make us feel better about what we are doing.

BAGHDAD (AP) - Days after the U.S. officially ended combat operations and touted Iraq's ability to defend itself, American troops found themselves battling heavily armed militants assaulting an Iraqi military headquarters in the center of Baghdad on Sunday. The fighting killed 12 people and wounded dozens.

It was the first exchange of fire involving U.S. troops in Baghdad since the Aug. 31 deadline for formally ending the combat mission, and it showed that American troops remaining in the country are still being drawn into the fighting.

The attack also made plain the kind of lapses in security that have left Iraqis wary of the U.S. drawdown and distrustful of the ability of Iraqi forces now taking up ultimate responsibility for protecting the country.

Sunday's hour-long assault was the second in as many weeks on the facility, the headquarters for the Iraqi Army's 11th Division, pointing to the failure of Iraqi forces to plug even the most obvious holes in their security.

There was a philosopher that believed that words are weapons to wield power, and I believe our current President is his disciple. Don't like what's happening in Iraq? Call it something else. Describe it in different terms. The economy is not going well despite your policies? Spin the media - tell a different story. Make people believe something else and maybe you will give them "hope". Make them "hope" in you, and maybe they won't notice the city that's burning.