When a Republican Senator says this in regard to the spending (or lack thereof) in Iraq, I sit up and pay attention.

Sen. Chuck Hagel (R) of Nebraska along with others have made it known they aren’t happy with the transfer of funds from development to security in Iraq.

Everyone except senior members of the Bush administration seem to know you can’t win the fight in Iraq by killing people. You can kill and kill and kill and all you get are more dead bodies on both sides, but no end in sight. There isn’t a magic number of Mahdi Army members or terrorists (and man do I hesitate to even use that word to describe who is fighting in Iraq) that you have to kill and then magically we win.

This isn’t a video game, this a war we are losing.

I’m not a pessimist, I’m just pessimistic.

I have a friend in Iraq right now, in the Special Forces stationed between Ramadi and Falluja. He described the “no-go” zones to me as so dangerous he dreads going into those places every day. And it’s his job to go in and “draw contact” which is a euphemism for getting shot at.

A few days ago he saw an 18-year old get his head blown off. Literally.

This disaster I describe in Iraq is not a liberal whining because I want peace or think that Saddam was a nice guy. It’s because as someone with a background in international relations, relying on pretty much the same intelligence that the President had (because it turns out he had NOTHING), I would not have made the same decision he did.

This is Bush’s biggest and most glaring weak spot. He says we’re winning, but he’s lying. There is nothing about Iraq right now that looks like victory. Every reason he postulated for going to war has been proven wrong.

Nothing about Iraq is legitimate. Were this country rational Iraq would sink him faster than being woken up tomorrow morning by Dan Rather and finding a dead hooker in the White House and the original files from his National Guard days proving he utterly skirted his responsibilities.

This is why decrying Kerry for having “voted for then voted against” the war in Iraq is just wrong, wrong, wrong. He is absolutely correct to say he authorized the President to go to war, but wouldn’t have necessarily made the same decision.

He could have made just about any decision but what Bush did and done better than where we are now.

I know Spc. Mark Denler, US Special Forces agrees.