The Brits are Abandoning the "Mission"

Both the BBC and CNN are reporting that Tony Blair has announced that approximately half of the British forces deployed to Iraq will be pulled out by the end of 2007, and the British forces will be completely withdrawn from Iraq by the end of 2008.

Our major ally in the region is withdrawing from operations and pulling out their troops, even as United States forces escalate their presence and increase engagements with hostile forces.

The cause is, quite simply, lost. When the WMD's became histories first proven negative, the possibility of anything resembling "victory" evaporated.

It is patently absurd and the height of hubris to think that an outside party can win another countries civil war. As objectives were never clearly defined, they are, by (lack of) definition, unachievable. IT makes about as much sense for the dead-enders to insist on victory in Iraq as it would have made for the Italians to insist they would win this countries civil war in 1865.

The very notion is patently absurd, to the point it's just surreal.