Democratic Sens. Mary Landrieu (La.) and Blanche Lincoln (Ark.) were not ready to say whether the United States is winning the war in Iraq when asked by CNSNews.com on Friday, nor did they say whether the United States is losing the war. Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson (Ga.), however, said America is winning and meeting its goals.

President Bush said progress in Iraq resulting from last year's troop surge has allowed U.S. forces to come home, and troop deployments to be shortened.

The length of tours of duties for forces serving in Iraq will fall from 15 months to 12 months beginning Friday. The tours had been extended in spring 2007 as part of the troop surge as a way to increase the number of active-duty personnel who could be deployed to Iraq.

The U.S. troop "surge" in Iraq that President George W. Bush ordered last year has ended after the last of five additional combat brigades left the country, a U.S. military spokesman said on Tuesday. The remaining troops from that brigade departed over the weekend, leaving just under 147,000 American soldiers in Iraq, the spokesman said.

Page 12 of a Government Accountability Office report published on June 23 features data about the war in Iraq -- drawn from the Defense Intelligence Agency -- that must be central to the debate about what the United States does next in that country.

It indicates we have started to win a war we cannot afford to lose.