THIS POLICY BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE LETTER "S"

You may recall the phrases "stay the course" and "As the Iraqis stand up, we will stand down," both of which now denote failed "strategerie." Now, the brand new version is "return on success," and this one seems to be a dishonest variant of Sen. George Aiken's suggestion about Vietnam in 1966: Declare victory and leave.

Via Atrios, I learned that McClatchy puts the new spin in context:


New Bush plan recalls Iraq strategies past
By Nancy A. Youssef McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Thursday, September 13, 2007

WASHINGTON — Eight months after President Bush made public a plan he hailed as the "New Way Forward" in Iraq, he's announced a new plan, this one called "Return on Success."
The new plan was reminiscent of last year's "Operation Together Forward," which called for U.S. troops to secure neighborhoods in Baghdad and hand them over to Iraqi security forces. It bore similarities to an even older plan commonly articulated with the catchphrase "as they stand up, we'll stand down."