News Flash: Administration Official Tells the Truth about Iraq

Paging Tony Snow! Spin Doctor Needed Stat!

In a stunning reversal of administration policy, Defense Secretary designee Robert Gates admitted today that the U.S. is losing the war in Iraq. Just six weeks ago, Mr. Bush himself proclaimed that we were winning. (See Crooks & Liars; they have the video to prove it.) As we have learned over the last several years, the Bush White House has an aversion to truth-telling, especially about its many foreign policy miscalculations.

Apparently, somone forget to send the memo to Mr. Gates. Or perhaps this intrusion of reality into the White House playbook is a turn for the better, an admission that the White House brain trust (we're using the term loosely) has finally faced what the rest of us—even people here in good ole in Tulsa, Oklahoma—realized many months ago. The war was a mistake when Bush started it, and it remains a huge blunder today.

In a complex and dangeous world, the President has made the nation less secure. And he has no idea how to fix the problems he's created. Mr. Gates may or may not be helpful in solving the President's problems, but if he's willing to tell the truth, that in itself is a tiny step in the right direction.