Perception is reality.
Chilling observations from Sidney Blumenthal at Salon.com.
Since the Iraqi elections in January, U.S. Foreign Service officers at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad have been writing a steady stream of disturbing cables describing drastically worsening conditions, say State Department officials who have seen them.
The Bush administration's preferred response to the increasing disintegration in Iraq is to act as if it has a strategy that is succeeding.
Give it enough time and you will see that this was the right war. That's the problem with the infinite time horizon. Even with no verifiable results you can delude yourself into believing that you're actually succeeding.