We're fighting them in Mogadishu, so we don't have to fight them in Crawford

Scott Stanzel,White House spokesperson:

"The war on terror is a long struggle and we will be fighting violent jihadists to secure peace for many years to come and the call of this generation is to take the fight to the terrorists to prevent an attack on our nation greater than the scale of 9/11," the spokesman said at the president's ranch where Bush is spending the end of the year.

Jeffrey Gettelman, New York Times reporter:

Islamist forces in Somalia beat a hasty retreat today to their stronghold in Mogadishu, Somalia’s battle-scared capital, crumbling faster than anyone expected after a week of attacks by Ethiopian forces.

Burhakaba, a large inland city, fell first, followed by Dinsoor, not far away, and then Bulo Burto, where just a few weeks ago the Islamists in charge were threatening to behead people who did not pray.

The Islamist fighters, who had seemed invincible after taking Mogadishu in June, now seem powerless to stop the steady advance of the Ethiopian-backed forces of the transitional government.

By this afternoon, the transitional government troops were within 60 miles of Mogadishu and calling for the Islamists to surrender. The Islamist leaders refused, saying they would take their fight “everywhere,” which some people viewed as a veiled threat to expand the guerilla tactics and suicide bombs they have already used.

The fast-moving developments seem to confirm what United Nations officials and witnesses in Somalia have been saying since the fighting erupted a week ago: that the young forces of the Islamists, however religiously inspired, were no match for the better trained, better equipped Ethiopian-backed troops who have tanks and fighter jets.

Is there a lesson to be learned here? Seems to me that Bush and his minions are only interested in creating a state of perpetual war, not, you know, actually fighting it or winning it.