I read the article this morning.
The most interesting thing about it was the tone. Derision. Whether Fallujah is a defeat or not, it means that nobody in the rest of the world believes a thing the US government says, about anything--not about war, peace, economy or anything else.
The Iraqis certainly don't believe them. For the US, win, lose or draw, won't make any difference. We have reached credibility zero.
This must be an interesting place to be. No matter how many people you kill, no matter how many towns you destroy, no matter how nasty you talk, nobody believes you. Every dead body was an enemy `combatant', every demolished home was an enemy `hideout', every destroyed town was an enemy `stronghold'... All that positive `work' and still C = 0.
So here we are in a complete political vacuum.
CG