Last one before the SOTU. As you may remember from earlier, General Casey is out and Lt General Petraeus is in. Now, he’s a proponent of the escalation, but I’m noticing that he lacks the administration’s general optimism concerning the situation.

“The escalation of violence in 2006 undermined the coalition strategy and raised the prospect of a failed Iraqi state, an outcome that would be in no group’s interest, save that of certain extremist organizations and perhaps states in the region that wish Iraq and the [United] States ill,” Petraeus told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

…

“None of this will be rapid. In fact, the way ahead will be neither quick nor easy, and there undoubtedly will be tough days,” Petraeus said. “We face a determined, adaptable, barbaric enemy. He will try to wait us out. In fact, any such endeavor is a test of wills, and there are no guarantees.”

Yikes. And this is why the plan is flawed inherently. The only actual way for a flat victory is to, quite literally, eliminate every single extremist in the Middle East as well as somehow guarantee that no more will be created. The enemy is not a state entity, that’s why the enemies tend to be a hodgepodge from nations all over the area.

A test of wills, that’s what the Iraq Fiasco has become. Here’s the problem: they live there. We don’t. We can only sit over there for so long, they can hibernate for decades. A decision will have to be made sometime soon.