> That practically nobody actually fighting over there agrees with you means nothing.

You know, I work with active-duty military officers every day, most of whom are Iraq or Afghan veterans (or at least were at least in theatre, e.g. Kuwait or Qatar). In my current job I pretty much *only* interact with active military officers; I haven't spoken to a liberal elite type face to face in a couple of months.

While I am unable to relate any details or even hints of details from my conversations (not due to classification, but general non-attribution rules), I think you'd be surprised by the conversations I hear, Tom. Private opinions on the wisdom of having started the war among officers are considerably more diverse than you think, as are views on how well things are going. You'd find plenty of officers with directly relevant experience whose take is more like what you read in the NYT or WaPo than what the guys at Powerline have to say. I'd actually expected that I might need to adjust my own view once I got the inside scoop, but after several months of getting the unfiltered military view, I'm really no more optimistic than before. And I can point to guys in uniform who are even more pessimistic than me.

To be fair, there's much agreement that the MSM don't give a fair picture of when US troops kill civilians or otherwise make mistakes -- there's a widespread sense that such indidents get taken out of context and/or exaggerated. But on how we're doing vs the insurgency or the overall strategic contribution of the war, no way is there a consensus among officers that "we're winning but the media just won't report it".

On the reenlistment, be careful attributing those decisions to believe in the cause. On a practical level, the financial incentives being offered are huge, and of course some specialities are affected by stop-loss orders so we don't really know what reenlistment rates would be like. More importantly, there is a tremendous reluctance to leave the service while a fight is on -- doing so is seen as abandoning one's buddies. Whether or not the war is worth it for the country, we're in it, so leaving the service means someone else goes to Iraq in your place. Not quitting, not letting your buddies down is a HUGE motivating factor.