How do we know if we’ve lost the war?

A kos diarist posted his criteria.

1.) When you have to lie to start a war, you’re well on your way to losing it. Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, and the probability of Iraq detonating a nuclear weapon (or any other WMD) in the US was essentially zero.

2.) When you keep changing your story, you’ve lost the war. First it was 9/11. Then it was WMDs. Then it was “get rid of Saddam.” Then it was “restore democracy.” Now it’s “restore order” and “keep the Sunnis and Shiites from killing each other.”

3.) When you don’t plan for your occupation, like Rumsfeld wouldn’t, you’ve lost the war.

4.) When you won’t let your State Dept take part in post-war planning you’ve lost the war.

5.) When you barrack your troops at schools in the country which invented writing, as we did in Fallujah, you’ve lost the war.

6.) When you can’t keep the world’s most important archeological museum from being looted, you’ve lost the war. (Whether the Baghdad museum was the most important archeological museum in the world is open to debate, but it gets my vote.)

7.) When you can’t keep the ministries in Baghdad from being looted, you’ve lost the war.

8.) When you’re caught on film torturing prisoners, like we did in Abu Ghraib, you’ve lost the war.

9.) When the Shiites and Sunnis are fighting a civil war under your occupation, you’ve lost the war.

10.) When Iran and Saudi Arabia are using the Sunnies and Shiites to fight a proxy war under your occupation, you’ve lost the war.

11.) When there are four million refugees four years after the occupation starts, you’ve lost the war.

12.) When 8 million people are in desperate need of food, water, and medical care, as the latest Oxfam report tells us, you’ve lost the war.

13.) When support for your war has steadily gone down since the day it started, and the President who started the war has an approval rating below 30%, you’ve lost the war.

14.) When your best ally (Blair) loses office because he supported you, you’ve lost the war.

15.) When the majority party in both houses of Congress becomes the minority party due to mass disapproval of your war, you’ve lost.

16.) When the electricity in Iraq still isn’t at pre-war levels, you’ve lost the war.

17.) When the insurgency continues unabated despite the “surge” and four years of occupation, you’ve lost the war.

18.) When you let the largest ammo dump in Iraq get looted by insurgents, (google Al Qaaqaa) you’ve lost the war.

19.) When gas in Iraq (of all places) costs 5 dollars a gallon, you’ve lost the war.

20.) When the Turks have 140,000 troops on the border of Iraq, so guerrilas from Iraq don’t attack them, and the Turks might invade your invasion any day, you’ve lost the war.

21) When your representatives vote to make your country more like the dictatorship you’re supposed to be replacing, you’ve lost the war.