It's an occupation stupid!

Thom Hartmann gets it right, what's going on in Iraq is no longer a war it's an occupation and all Democrats should refer to it as that.
Reclaim the Issues - "Occupation, Not War"

Every time the media - or a Democrat - uses the phrase "War in Iraq" they are promoting one of Karl Rove's most potent Republican Party frames.
There is no longer a war against Iraq.

The war itself was short.

It ended in May of 2003, when George W. Bush stood below a "Mission Accomplished" sign aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln and correctly declared that we had "victoriously" defeated the Iraqi army and overthrown their government.

Our military machine is tremendously good at fighting wars - blowing up infrastructure, killing opposing armies, and toppling governments. We did that successfully in Iraq, in a matter of a few weeks. We destroyed their army, wiped out their air defenses, devastated their Republican Guard, seized their capitol, arrested their leaders, and took control of their government. We won the war. It's over.

Our military is pretty good at war but what we have had since May 2003 is not a war but an occupation. It is easy to see we are not too good at that.

The US won the war and has been losing the occupation ever since.