Marathon Pundit: Harry Reid: Reinventing the "lost" Iraq war

When President Bush proposed his surge strategy for Iraq in 2007, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) famously declared "the war is lost." Reid was clearly wrong, which the campaign of his Republican opponent, Sharron Angle, is pouncing upon.

Politics Daily's Matt Lewis explains:

"Senator Reid's comment was in agreement with General Petraeus' assessment that the Iraq War could not be won by military force alone and that a political solution was also needed as part of a two-part strategy -- which President Bush refused to pursue."

This, of course, seems contrived. Four months earlier, when President Bush announced the surge in a Jan. 10 address to the nation, he stressed that:

"Our troops will have a well-defined mission: to help Iraqis clear and secure neighborhoods, to help them protect the local population, and to help ensure that the Iraqi forces left behind are capable of providing the security that Baghdad needs."
Furthermore, Bush referred to the Iraqi government more than a dozen times, stressing that when daily life improves, "Iraqis will gain confidence in their leaders, and the government will have the breathing space it needs to make progress in other critical areas."