REDEFINING SUCCESS: A LETTER TO THE ECONOMIST (January 15, 2007)

There you go again! First you rallied behind George Bush’s war on Iraq (pace Tony Blair). Then you declared the war a failure. And now you are rallying behind Bush’s “surge” in Iraq (“Baghdad or Bust,” January 13, 2007). But how can twenty-thousand soldiers, on top of the one-hundred and thirty-thousand already in the country, turn failure into success? If it takes “redefining” success, as you helpfully suggest in your main leader, how about doing it right now, before the futile surge? Such a redefinition is surely within reach of a mighty newspaper like yours. After all, Saddam Hussein is gone for good. So, let us call it a draw (pace Monty Python).