Won

Without rehashing too much, The American Enterprise Institute is a neoconservative think tank, highly popular with the present administration. Some might call it a Bush echo chamber.

Frederick Kagan has a recent piece posted at the AEI titled How We'll Know When We've Won

If you want to know where President Bush gets his talking points on Iraq, look no further. Those with the time and inclination would do well to analyze the arguments and provide the refutation.

Kagan describes the future markers which would then indicate that the Iraq war/occupation had been won.

Here is an excerpt from Kagan's article:

An ally in the struggle against militant Islamism. Whatever Saddam Hussein's ties were to al Qaeda before the invasion, the reality today is that an important al Qaeda franchise has established itself in Iraq. It initially had the support of a significant portion of Iraq's Sunni Arab community, but that community--with critical American support--has rejected al Qaeda and united with Iraq's Shia and Kurds to fight it.

As a result, there is no state in the world that is more committed than Iraq to defeating al Qaeda. None has mobilized more troops to fight al Qaeda or suffered more civilian casualties at the hands of al Qaeda--or, for that matter, taken more police and military casualties. Iraq is already America's best ally in the struggle against al Qaeda. Moreover, the recent decision of Iraq's government to go after illegal, Iranian-backed Shia militias and terror groups shows that even a Shia government in Baghdad can be a good partner in the struggle against Shia extremism as well.

One might deduce that Kagan is pleased with Iraq's war on Al Qaeda.

Recall that the neocons pushed the war based on Saddam's weapons of mass destruction.

Recall that Al Qaeda was not in Iraq prior to the invasion.

In this context, Kagan is pleased with a conflict that is partly his collaborators own creation. I am always surprised by the neoconservative neglect of this extremely sore point. Had their understanding faced any true criticism and evaluation, then the initial mess would not have been started.

Now they assume the role of cheerleading the way out through a planned set of markers. At this point, why should America place any weight on or give any authority to the neoconservative notions.