An unimaginable truth

U.S. Defense Secretary nominee Robert Gates arrives for an appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee for his confirmation hearings on Capitol Hill in Washington, December 5, 2006. REUTERS/Jim Young

Get used to it. Despite possessing massive destructive capacity, the U.S. does not have the power to rule the whole world. The U.S. has no power to do anything positive in Iraq. "We" (our country despite the opposition of the saner people in our country) have lost this war.

Wishful thinking is not new. It deceived the White House during the Vietnam War with lights at the end of the tunnel. Evan Thomas, in his new book "Sea of Thunder," explains how the Japanese at the end of World War II were incapable of admitting they were losing, and felt it important to maintain morale "even by false reports." The Japanese "never used the word 'defeat.' They spoke of 'tenshin,' changing the course. A 'divine nation' could not be defeated."

The modern equivalent is the unshakable belief in the ability of American military power -- the holy grail of the Bush administration. The last superpower cannot be defeated, so facts must be denied and terminology changed.

H.D.S. Greenway
Boston Globe

Even old spook and cold warrior Robert Gates, Bush's nominee for Secretary of Defense (War) knows this:

Asked point-blank by Sen. Carl Levin D-Mich., whether the U.S. is winning in Iraq, Gates replied, "No, sir."

AP

I wonder if he really means, believes, takes the implications of that admission?

Even among progressives, it defies our imaginations that the U.S. could prove incapable of accomplishing a military task it set itself. But it is true. So much for this 1000 year empire.