White House Press Secretary Tony Snow is staring right at the wall, yet fails to see the writing on it.

At his daily briefing today at the White House, Press Secretary Tony Snow fielded a barrage of questions related to the recent upsurge in U.S. deaths in Iraq and worries that the Iraqi government is failing to stem the tide of violence. Suddenly one reporter put the issue squarely: “Sorry. Just the simple question: Are we winning?”

Snow punted.

“We're making progress,” he replied. “I don't know. How do you define ‘winning’?

I feel it is incumbent upon me to help poor Tony Snow to understand what winning a war looks like. (I am a very attentive student of history.)

• When you are killing more of the enemy then they are killing you, you are winning. (I do not know what it means when they are killing more of each other then you are able to kill. That is a head scratcher.)
• When you find that the enemy is running out of combatants, you are winning.
• When you take back an area once controlled by the enemy and are greeted by the inhabitants as heroes, you are winning.
• When you see the number of deaths diminishing on a monthly basis, then you are winning.
• When you have a gut feeling that things getting better, then you are probably winning.

If I may be so bold Mr. Snow the reason that you cannot tell if we are winning is because we are not winning. We are losing!

Now I have never been to war, but I have won athletic events, contests, prizes and the girl. I have also lost a few times in my life. I can tell the difference without too much difficulty. Trust me sir, we are definitely not winning.