WASHINGTON, April 26 (Reuters) - Iraq's insurgency remains undiminished in its capabilities in the past year despite U.S.-led efforts to crush the rebels, the top American general said on Tuesday.

"I think their capacity stays about the same," Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said of Iraq's insurgents during a Pentagon briefing. "And where they are right now is where they were almost a year ago."

Asked during the briefing "are we winning" the war, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld did not directly respond.

"The United States and the coalition forces, in my personal view, will not be the thing that will defeat the insurgency," Rumsfeld said.

"So, therefore, winning or losing is not the issue for 'we,' in my view, in the traditional, conventional context of using the word 'winning' and 'losing' in a war. The people that are going to defeat that insurgency are going to be the Iraqis."

Gack! Rummy the Dummy speaks in oodles and boodles of goodles!

Originally posted by Echo2
Asked during the briefing "are we winning" the war, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld did not directly respond.

"The United States and the coalition forces, in my personal view, will not be the thing that will defeat the insurgency," Rumsfeld said.

"So, therefore, winning or losing is not the issue for 'we,' in my view, in the traditional, conventional context of using the word 'winning' and 'losing' in a war. The people that are going to defeat that insurgency are going to be the Iraqis."

I'm not really debating your thread {I'll leave that for Travh} I just wanted to point something else out. We elect these folks because we believe they have answers, atleast answer to things that they are in control over. I don't know about the rest of you but it really pisses me of when the guy with the answers seems to be an idiot. What kind of an answer is "winning or losing is not the issue"? Of course it is the issue "moron" if we are losing then we should figure out what the problem is and overcome it. JMO I am just getting sick of all the bull sh** and would like to see an honest politician " :D :D :D :D :D" now that is good comedy....

Democracy tends to result in putting the best liars in office, since the candidate who fools the most people into believing that they will do what they want wins. We should not, therefore, be surprised that all our politicians are liars.
As far as winning the war, I do not think we can win the war. What we can do is to train the Iraqi military and police to do the job of controlling there own country. Then we can leave.
What will probably result is either a new dictatorship or a civil war resulting in a splitting up of the country. Neither of these results, in my opinion, will have been worth the loss of American lives or the costs in dollars and international prestige. This is a new war that is being lost in Washington.