DNC Chairman Howard Dean, Monday:

"The idea that we're going to win the war in Iraq is an idea which is just plain wrong."

Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen, Tuesday:

How can we have "Victory in Iraq" if the man in command has already brought us defeat?


"Defeat" may be too strong a word, but if so, that's only for the moment. If, in fact, U.S. troops pull out of Iraq anytime before their mission is accomplished — the plan of some Democrats and the wish of a few Republicans — then defeat is surely what this debacle will be called. Even if that does not happen, any victory that comes three years and more than 2,000 U.S. military deaths later than promised cannot be considered a triumph. Call it what you will, but at the very least it's a tragedy.

Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., today:

I am convinced we can't win militarily. The military has said we can't win militarily.

Other interesting comments from Murtha today:

Very small proportion of the people that are involved in the insurgency are terrorists or how I would interpret them as terrorists...


When I said we can't win a military victory, it's because the Iraqis have turned against us. They throw a hand grenade or a rocket into American forces and the people run into the crowd and they — nobody tells them where they are.

I am convinced, and everything that I've read, the conclusion I've reached is there will be less terrorism, there will be less danger to the United States and it'll be less insurgency once we're out.

I think the Iraqis themselves will turn against this very small group of Al Qaida.

They keep saying the terrorists are going to control Iraq — no way. Al Qaida's only 7 percent of the people in Iraq and doing this fighting. The terrorists — there's several factions, but let's say Al Qaida is 7 percent at the very most.

Iraq will get rid of them because they'll tell the Iraqis where they are and it will be the end of the terrorist activity.

Now, my plan says redeploy to the periphery, to Kuwait, to Okinawa, and if there's a terrorist activity that affects our allies or affects the United States' national security, we can then go back in.

I'm sorry, Okinawa??? The Marine Corps base there is, according to this site, 4,893 miles from Baghdad. What chances does the U.S. have of capturing or killing Zarqawi or any of his followers when we're on the other side of the globe?

UPDATE: TKS reader Michael points out that not only is Okinawa 4,800 miles away, the Marine Corps is in the process of moving a large segment of their presence out of Okinawa to Guam. Guam is 6,296 miles from Baghdad.