Howard Dean is taking his own advice: making a tactical retreat away from a difficult situation. This time, though, the difficult situation was caused by his own big mouth.

Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean said Thursday his assertion that the United States cannot win the war in Iraq was reported “a little out of context,” saying Democrats believe a new U.S. strategy is needed to succeed there.

Seeking to clarify a statement in a Texas radio interview that Republicans harshly assailed and some Democrats questioned, Dean said, “They kind of cherry-picked that one the same way the president cherry-picked the intelligence going into Iraq.”

So, if I understand correctly, what Dean is actually saying, when he said (and I’m cherry picking here) “the idea that we’re going to win the war in Iraq is an idea which is just plain wrong,” is that the United States can win the war in Iraq. By retreating all the way to victory.

Abandonment is a novel approach to reconstruction, I have to admit.

If you want the context, download the complete interview from The Political Teen. Quite specifically, Dean said precisely what he said: that the situation in Iraq is very similar to the war in Vietnam, that the United States lost 25,000 troops because no one was willing to admit that we were losing in Vietnam, and that the United States cannot win in Iraq. In fact, he explained, specifically, that he believed that we had made precisely the same mistake in Iraq that we had made in Vietnam.

Whatever you want to take away from his words--whether you agree with him or not--it is pretty tough to take his words as anything other than a declaration of defeat. He wasn’t saying that we need to find a way to win, he was saying that we need to “get the targets off” our soldiers’ backs (and his pointed refusal to use the word withdrawal is nothing less than a humorous attempt to avoid saying what he is undeniably saying) and leave Iraq to the Iraqis.

His words: “What we want to do is have a strategy to protect American troops.”

That is a noble goal, but it needs to be in conjunction with an intelligent solution to reconstruction in Iraq. He wasn’t talking about finding a way to win; he was talking about declaring it a loss and making an orderly exit as soon as possible.

Really, there is no way to make reconcile Dean’s statements today with his statements a few days ago, but it’s nice to see that he’s recognized the idiocy of what he was advocating at the beginning of the week.