I’ve been more than a little frustrated with the media coverage of the debate over Iraq strategy.  It is little more than a declaration "you don’t have a strategy" followed by "do too!"  Where is the strategy?  Where is the substance?  This kind of insubstantial coverage helped lead us into the war in the first place, on the unsound basis of WMD.

Now at last the White House has released a document outlining their strategy.  And you might be able to dig it up, though none of the news reports I read provided a link to the strategy itself, or discussed it’s contents in any meaningful way.  The document is the "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq."  If you read it, instead of the lame media coverage, you can start to have a real debate.

I for one find some things to be concerned about in the document, such as this excerpt:

Prevailing in Iraq will help us win the war on terror.

• The terrorists regard Iraq as the central front in their war against humanity. And we must recognize Iraq as the central front in our war on terror.
  • Osama Bin Laden has declared that the "third world war…is raging" in Iraq, and it will end there, in "either victory and glory, or misery and humiliation."
  • Bin Laden’s deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri has declared Iraq to be "the place for the greatest battle," where he hopes to "expel the Americans" and then spread "the jihad wave to the secular countries neighboring Iraq."
  • Al Qaida in Iraq, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has openly declared that "we fight today in Iraq, and tomorrow in the Land of the Two Holy Places, and after there the west."
    • As the terrorists themselves recognize, the outcome in Iraq — success or failure — is critical to the outcome in the broader war on terrorism.

Skipping over some of the dumbest parts ("war against humanity" - give me a break!), it is pretty clear, and even the Bush administration seems to admit it, that the invasion has created a haven of sorts for terrorists.  But even more, it’s given the terrorists a global boost in popularity by associating them with freedom fighters defending the homeland.  The issue we should be talking about is whether the war (I still hate to dignify it as such) on terror is being won.  IMO the invasion has tipped the balance in favor of terrorism rather than the reverse.  This, the real Bush legacy, should be covered more fully by the media.