My verdict is still that the popular movement and its leadership in Shi-ite Iraq are significantly turning the wheels of world history at this point...
One problem for the neo-cons, I have long felt, is that they never really took to heart the deep truths inherent in Clausewitz's dictum that, "War is an extension of politics by other means." One clear implication of that dictum is that it is the politics of any given situation that are, at the end of the day, what really counts-- and that "war" is only one possible way to affect politics.
So yes, a country can indeed "win" a war on the battlefield, and then lose it royally by mishandling the political situation that follows.
Case study today, class? Iraq.
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