Remember the "surge"?  The increase in American troop levels in Iraq that was meant to improve the security situation and allow for political consolidation?  Well, it seems not to be working:

More than three months into a U.S.-Iraqi security offensive designed to curtail sectarian violence in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq, Health Ministry statistics show that such killings are rising again.

     This would come as no surprise to Sun Tzu, who understood that war-fighting was much more than simply quantities of men and munitions:

In war, numbers alone confer no advantage.  Do not advance relying on sheer military power. (9.45)

      Even though the Surge was preceded with verbiage about strategy and tactics, the sad truth is that there is no effective political strategy, and without a political strategy, the war fighting grinds on meaninglessly, only pushing off to a further date, at higher human cost, the inevitable withdrawal of US forces.

      Sun Tzu also has something to say to US military commanders:

If the situation is one of victory but the sovereign has issued orders not to engage, the general may decide to fight.  If the situation is such that he cannot win, but the sovereign has issued orders to engage, he need not do so. (10.18)

      Principled disobedience by military leaders can be a dangerous thing, especially in a democracy.  But it is painfully clear now that the only reason why the US presence in Iraq has not been scaled back is the vanity of Bush and Cheney.  We cannot "win" on the terms they have set out (a unified Iraq with "acceptable levels of violence").   We need to pull back, scale down, disengage from the "Surge".   At this point a US commitment to withdrawal would likely have a positive effect on the insurgency.   Bush won’t do it.  Congress is too divided to get the job done (insufficient votes to override a veto).  But if the generals came forward and said "no more," if they were willing to sacrifice their careers for the national good, they would be following in the grandest tradition of The Art of War.

     Bush lost the war.