Last week, I wrote about the Defense Science Board, the branch within the Pentagon tasked with internal review. If these guys gave grades, the Pentagon would be getting an F. Minus.
As the Herald (that's a newspaper in England) reported yesterday (reporting is something they do in England), the U.S. is losing the "hearts and minds" war.
Here's what the non-partisan career military people from the DSB had to say of Operation Iraqi Freedom: "American efforts have not only failed, they may also have achieved the opposite of what they intended."
"The OPPOSITE of what they intended." What they intended was to make America -- and the world -- a safer place. The "opposite" means they made America and the world a more dangerous place. It was certainly more dangerous for the over 1,200 dead American soldiers and the over 100,000 dead Iraqis. But the DSB is telling us (I'm sorry, telling the English, who actually report on this stuff) that it's less safe for all of us living Americans. To wit: "American actions have elevated the authority of the jihadi insurgents and tended to ratify their legitimacy among Muslims. The result is that al-Qaeda has gone from being a marginal movement to having support across the entire Muslim world."
What happened to the "we are all Americans" sympathy of 9/12/2001?
George W. Bush happened. I guess the DSB report means Little Georgie's C student status is dropping. Kind of like a missile or a dead body.