Strangled to Victory

No one controls Iraq.

But the very idea that the United States could manage it was repeated on Capitol Hill last week.

At the microphones were the top commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, and the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker.

And with every breath they took, they championed American “success,” “security,” “progress,” “victory,” and “stability” in Iraq.

Of course, both men offered conditions to blunt future expectations should things go even more horribly wrong than they already have:

“If the Iraqis did this