I could have told them that more than a year ago, but it’s good to see they’re now saying it themselves.

A growing number of senior American military officers in Iraq have concluded that there is no long-term military solution to an insurgency that has killed thousands of Iraqis and taken a heavy toll on U.S. troops during the past two years.
Instead, officers say, the only way to end the guerrilla war is through Iraqi politics — an arena that so far has been crippled by divisions between Shi’a Muslims, whose coalition dominated the January elections, and Sunni Muslims, who are a minority in Iraq but form the base of support for the insurgency.

“I think the more accurate way to approach this right now is to concede that … this insurgency is not going to be settled, the terrorists and the terrorism in Iraq is not going to be settled, through military options or military operations,” Brig. Gen. Donald Alston, the chief U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, said last week, in a comment that echoes what other senior officers say. “It’s going to be settled in the political process.” […]

Gen. George W. Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, expressed similar sentiments, calling the military’s efforts “the Pillsbury Doughboy idea” — pressing the insurgency in one area only causes it to rise elsewhere.

Can’t blame the liberal media for this one — it’s all straight from the horse’s mouth. And yet we keep funneling military money and lives into Iraq like there’s no tomorrow. Just because Bush has decreed that we must “stay the course,” even if that course is the very worst thing for America and for Iraq.

Via Kos.