I don't know how the war in Iraq is going. Some of the news is good, some is bad, and an awful lot of it doesn't seem to hold up for very long.
The last few days, we've seen people who recently said the war would end swiftly begin denying they ever said the war would end swiftly. Military officials are telling reporters that things would be going much better if only civilian officials hadn't overruled the experts. Even some White House sources are starting to float the idea that George W. was "out of the loop" on some pretty important decisions…so if they turn out wrong, he's not to blame. (Reagan, Clinton and the previous Bush all had to occasionally resort to the "I didn't know what my administration was doing" defense and amazingly, they all got away with it to some extent. We won't forgive our leaders for bad decisions, but simply not doing their jobs is okay.)
Now, politicians and military men are notorious for pointing fingers elsewhere, and trying to avoid responsibility for their own decisions and statements — so this could all be a lot of needless ass-covering. But at best, it's that. At worst, it's…well, it's pretty bad.
The next week or so, we'll probably see public confidence in this war plunge. It may not be quantifiable or provable, since some people think it aids the war effort to not express that kind of doubt to pollsters. But there may well be some measurable dip, which will immediately be blamed on the protestors, not on those generals complaining that Rumsfeld overruled their sage advice. And long after the battle is over, no matter how it turns out, we'll still be hearing that the "anti-war crowd" — not the people who actually ran the war — are to blame for it lasting as long as it did, and getting that many soldiers killed.