The Top 10 Myths about Iraq

Juan Cole's list. I agree with this and think you can measure someone's right wingnuttery by the number to which they agree.

1. "The US can still win."
2. "US military sweeps of neighborhoods can drive the guerrillas out."
3. The United States is best off throwing all its support behind the Iraqi Shiites.
4. "Iraq is not in a civil war."
5. "The second Lancet study showing 600,000 excess deaths from political and criminal violence since the US invasion is somehow flawed."
6. "Most deaths in Iraq are from bombings."
7. "Baghdad and environs are especially violent but the death rate is lower in the rest of the country."
8. "Iraq is the central front in the war on terror."
9. "The Sunni Arab guerrillas in places like Ramadi will follow the US home to the American mainland and commit terrorism if we leave Iraq."
10. "Setting a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq is a bad idea."

Think Progress: In 1999, Governor George W. Bush criticized then President Clinton for declining to set a withdrawal timetable for Kosovo, saying "Victory means exit strategy, and it’s important for the president to explain to us what the exit strategy is."

Right now Bush-Cheney's exit strategy is Vietnamization and escalation after the couple years of seeing "the light at the end of the tunnel" has been proven wrong.

Tags: Iraq, Juan Cole