Even Ace of Spades is beginning to take off the blinders:
[I]t seemed to me – and I hope I’m not playing the role of clumsy Kremlinologist here – to suggest that the Bush administration has reduced its definition of "victory" in Iraq to an almost comically-low level. (It would be comical, but for the tragedy.) And that perhaps the Administration now believes that a helicopters-leaving-from-the-embassy-rooftop defeat is all but inevitable, and that their hopes are now pinned on the long view of history – sure, just like in Vietnam, we’ll have "lost," but in the fullness of time, we’ll actually win.
This meme has been around for a while. Recall that Cheney believes the last four years have been a procession of "enormous successes" in Iraq. He has his eye on the long-run. The rest of us keep looking at a time-line of a few years.
The Dish 