LATEOTT nominee #1 for August

Bush: U.S. to Stay in Iraq Despite Deaths - Yahoo! News
Our first nominee for the General WIlliam Westmoreland Light At The End Of The Tunnel Award is General Donald Alston, a military spokesman in Iraq.

"We still have deaths. We still have suicide car bombs," he said. "But the numbers we see indicate (the insurgents) can't generate the same tempo, and I think that's because we've had some degree of effect in interdicting these forces."

This claim came yesterday, when four Americans died, one day after 14 Americans were killed, and three days after seven more were killed.

Odd definition of tempo:

The latest death brought to at least 24 the number of marines killed over the last week in the Euphrates Valley in one of the bloodiest periods for U.S. forces in months. In all, at least 48 American service members have died in Iraq since July 24 -- all but two in combat.

Thank you for making the Quagmire Formerly Known as Iraq sound like American Bandstand, General. The Judging Committee values such use of trival metaphors highly.