McCain Seeks "Success" Instead of "Victory" in Iraq

Thanks to John McCain, there is a new word in the Iraq war lexicon. Gone is George W. Bush's talk of "victory" or "winning." The new standard is merely "success."

More than a dozen times in his short opening statement on Tuesday at the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Iraq, McCain cited "success" or its variations as the new goal for the war.

At the beginning of his statement, McCain included this line: "We're no longer staring into the abyss of defeat and we can now look ahead to the genuine prospect of success." He ended as follows: "Congress must not choose to lose in Iraq. We should choose instead to succeed."

A distinction without a difference? Hardly. When it comes to selling war at home, language is nearly as important as the combat itself. And "success" sounds easier to achieve than "victory," even if no one really knows what either word means in the context of this war. Watch Craig's video discussion of this topic, including McCain clips, at Video Trail Mix.

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Comments

[JimR]

How about this: We retroactively redefine our goals in Iraq. Our goal is to create an irreversible mess.

We succeeded! YAY, us! Let's bring 'em home now.

[carfino]

How 'bout confining ourselves to a general war on stupid policies and those who promote them?

[carfino]

As long as the media.....­especially the television folks continue to give McBush a pass during this election season....­..we'll be subjected to the repetitive nonsense such as we saw yesterday. The last two election cycles saw the media lob a couple of softballs and Bush.....s­o what's the surprise here.

The man is in a slow mental decline...­......it's pretty obvious. Several media folks have talked about it. Yesterday, Lawrence O'Donnell on MSNBC discussed the level of decline he's seen since the 2000 election cycle.

I guess if the media was able to effectively shield a dolt like Bush......­shielding McBush should be a cake walk.

[Henry]

Victory, winning, or success is one thing. They have yet to define the enemy: AQI (aq in Iraq) AQP (Pakistan) AQE (aq in Egypt) AQA (aq in Afganistan). And it all seems to be forgotten about Hamas, Hezbollah, Fatah, none of whom seem to be "with" us in the War (which was on terrorism). Iraq is an occupation seeking to quell insurgents. This is hardly a war. It is an occupation. How, on earth, can you "win" an occupation?
(I've heard that once we win the war on terrorism, we'll start a new war on bad manners)

[k8k9]

well said