Iraq has not been lost by a lack of American "patience" or "will"

This war has not been lost by an American "lack of patience," although that is how the administration will try to spin it. The reality is that the mainstream America has not lost patience with the war, they have lost patience with this administration's prosecution of the war.

I think it's certainly fair to debate whether the US could have ever "won" Iraq (I tend to fall on the "no" side,) but if America was to have won Iraq, it could not have made all the mistakes this administration has made.

It is not the American people who will lose this war by calling for withdrawal. I would argue that calling for withdrawal is their only option in the face of incompetence.

And, what does it say about the public's assessment of the prosecution of this war that they would prefer "defeat" to continuing to allow the Bush administration to run this war?