There's a theoretical concept that has become such a hot button issue that it's not a safe subject for public discussion. Not, that is, unless you're among trusted friends. That's the idea of using war for political advantage. Because it is seen as so immoral and so despicable by the people accused of doing it, people become indignant, and reasonable discussion is next to impossible.

Ever since 9/11, Bush has been accused of waging war for the political advantage of his own party. Not only is the mentioning any positive accomplishments in the war seen as political opportunism, but so is any mention of 9/11. (The latter, of course, supplies much of the emotional fuel for the 9/11 Truther movement.)

But because Democrats see Bush as fighting a war for political purposes, this inclines many of them to want (at least in the political sense) the war to become a hopeless quagmire -- something that can be said to have been "lost" by Bush.

Beyond this is where it gets tricky. (And highly emotional.) There is a fine line between wanting Bush to screw up so that the voters will see the truth and throw the damned Republicans out on their ass, and actually wanting America to lose the war because America is evil and just plain deserves to lose the war. Not only is it a fine line, but it's a messy, blurry line, because the Democratic Party is home to genuine America haters like Ward Churchill, Cindy Sheehan, Michael Moore, Code Pink, Not In Our Name, A.N.S.W.E.R., etc. And naturally, those who hate America indignantly claim that they do not hate America, but only hate its evil deeds and the evil men who run the government -- and that it is those who disagree with them who really hate America (and are unpatriotic).

I realize that by even attempting to discuss this, I am resorting to the type of generalizations I normally deplore, which is why I don't like to write essays like this very often. People become emotional whenever anyone generalizes about them, and I don't like it either. When I see any of the groups to which I might be said to belong being smeared, I tend to take it personally. Thus, if someone calls gun generalizations, or pit bull generalizations, or genital generalizations, I cannot help wondering whether they're talking about my guns, my dog, or my genitalia. So I should make it clear that I am not talking about pro-war Democrats here -- especially those of the Joe Lieberman variety. Nor am I talking about people who disagree with the war, but do not want the U.S. to lose it. I'm talking about those who want the country to lose in order to take back the White House -- both the "evil America" haters and the "good America" lovers.

I have to say, I find myself wondering whether it's more honest to want the country to lose because it's evil and because war is evil than to want it to lose in order to win an election. I also find myself wondering what would happen if Bush were cynical enough to play this game along with them.

To play this out hypothetically (as I'm sure many a Washington Machiavellian political junkie has), let's assume that the GOP's top strategists were able to call the shots, and that they had concluded that because the war called for a longtime occupation in Iraq, that it was not capable of ever being translated into a neat and tidy "victory" in time to win the 2008 election. They'd be faced with several choices:

stay in as long as possible and hope the American people would understand

pull out ASAP and hope for the best

make it appear that blame for the pullout was to be laid at the feet of the Democrats, and do everything possible to ensure that any perceived defeat be seen as the fault of the Democrats.

From the viewpoint of longterm political success or defeat, the two major factors are:

whether and when there will be a U.S. pullout; and

whether the Iraqi government can hold after the pullout

The question reduces itself along the following lines:

Will thousands of Americans have died for nothing?

Many people have a vested interest in this being the case, whether they admit it or not (and whether they like it or not) it is in their political interests to want the Iraqi government to fail.

It's become a downright unpleasant subject for discussion.