Pentagon, intel pros tell Bush war cannot be won

Pentagon, intel pros tell Bush war cannot be won
By DOUG THOMPSON
Capitol Hill Blue
Nov 30, 2005, 06:42

While President George W. Bush tells the American people that U.S. troops must stay in Iraq until they have “achieved victory,” Pentagon planners and intelligence professionals tell the White House the war cannot be won.

“The President’s speech tonight will be a con-job,” says a senior Pentagon analyst who asked not to be identified. “He will be attempting to sell a strategy that is not achievable and one that is not backed by the professionals who tell him otherwise.”

In fact, experts say Bush can no longer rally Americans to support his failed far in Iraq.

“The American people have turned against the war, and they're not turning back,” said political analyst Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia. “The public is no longer with the President on this issue.”

But opposition to the President’s policies also grows in the private corridors of the Pentagon and in the intelligence community where professionals in the art of waging war say the battle for Iraq is lost....