From Iraq corps commander General Pete Chiarelli's press conference today:

A lot of great things that we have done are not always visible to the public at home, and they see the continuing violence as a sign we have not accomplished anything. I don't believe that. I believe we have accomplished a lot. We are in the difficult business of proving a negative, and that's, in the absence of our efforts, really, how much worse would it be? This corps and the great military forces we command have helped to bring stability and hope to thousands of Iraqis that would otherwise not see these benefits.

Stability and hope, eh? With perhaps up to half a million dead? This is a bitter, awful requiem.

Judging from some of his other quotes in the press conference it wouldn't surprise me if Chiarelli testifies before the next Congress that the war is lost:

"I happen to believe that we have done everything militarily we possibly can. "

"I think it's fair to say that 2007 -- and I know this has been said many, many times -- that 2007 will be an absolutely critical year."

"To ask us if we're winning in Iraq is to think that one could boil the situation down to a simple yes-or-no answer, and I don't believe there is a simple yes-or-no answer. I think it is the wrong question. The real question that I think we should be asking ourselves is, are we making the progress toward our strategic objectives? And I would have to give that answer a yes. Are we moving as fast as I wish we were and I know General Casey wishes we were toward meeting those strategic objectives? We are not. And I know that he and the ambassador are working every single day to figure out ways to further the progress along those strategic objectives."