Daniel Henniger: Talking Ourselves Into Defeat

Via Opinion Journal:

Talking Ourselves Into Defeat
Profligate self-doubt can exact a price.

BY DANIEL HENNINGER
Thursday, January 25, 2007 12:01 a.m. EST

The United States is talking itself into defeat in Iraq. Its political culture is now in a downward spiral of pessimism. In the halls of Congress, across endless newspaper columns, amid the punditocracy and on Sunday morning talk shows--all emit a Stygian gloom about America...

...To pick one amid scores of similar characterizations in the media, the Associated Press wrote from Washington before the State of the Union speech that "Democrats--and even some Republicans--scoffed at his policy." "Scoff" is a strong word, suggesting eye-rolling ridicule. (The line was so good that the AP ran it after the speech as well, under another writer's byline, this time from Baghdad.) But of course amid the giddy vapors of mass mockery, they all "support the troops." ...