Strategy for victory apparently
a road map to a new Iran

President Bush speaking today in the city where the famous line "My country, right or wrong" was first uttered. Norfolk is home to the world's largest Navy base, and better yet, this part of the world is Pat Robertson's home base. Pretty safe location, all in all.

I'm tempted to nitpick a few political things -- most notably that the Republican candidate for governor wouldn't be seen with Bush -- but there are some substantive issues to address.

First, Bush called Norfolk "a good place to find work." Memo to W: Come Monday, I'm interviewing for a job 100 miles away. Because there are so many military dependents in this area desperate for work, wages here are far lower than elsewhere in the state.

Some proof: Norfolk tried to land the Montreal Expos before they became the Washington Nationals, and even though Norfolk had the best financing plans of any contending city, the effort was crippled because the average wage (and discretionary income for baseball games) was so low.

But back to Bush. The theme of the speech was strategy for victory, and I'll give him credit for getting one word right. For.

There's never been a coherent strategy in Iraq and I've never heard any definition of what would constitute victory. "We will accept nothing less than complete victory," W said. Victory over what? Terror isn't an enemy, it's a tactic. A victory of Christianity over Islam? Even if such a goal was acceptable, which it's not, it would only take, oh, a few centuries or millions and millions of people exterminated.

The speech included his standard line about a withdrawal from Iraq will make the U.S. look weak. This is patently absurd; the U.S. pulled out of Lebanon after being attacked, the U.S. pulled out of Somalia after being attacked, and the U.S. will eventually pull out of Iraq. It's not like that country is going to become the 51st state.

A year and a half after leaving South Viet Nam, that country fell. Anybody willing to bet Iraq can do better considering it's ethnic and sectarian rifts?

Paul Hackett, the Marine and Iraq war veteran running for the U.S. Senate in Ohio, recently said that under any standard, the security situation in Iraq is worse than when the U.S. went in, and the infrastructure is worse, too. If nation-building is victory, then we're a long way off.

The current spin on victory is a Democratic Iraq. Here again, it pays to pay attention. In the current National Assembly, 146 of the 275 seats are held by Shiites. The biggest Shiite leaders have ties to Iran. This week the president of Iran called for the destruction of Israel.

The United States has sacrificed 2,000 soldiers and spent $200 billion dollars to create another Iran. Well, it's not Iran quite yet, but President Bush keeps saying we have to stay until the mission is complete.

Some mission.

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