Where have we heard this before?

Q: How does a nation know it is winning a war? A: When the enemy has stopped fighting, or when the enemy is fighting harder.

Today's L.A. Times: Camp Pendleton General: Expect more killing in Afghanistan's Helmand province

A top general at Camp Pendleton who is departing to become the top Marine in Afghanistan said this week he expects more violence by Taliban fighters in Helmand province.

Maj. Gen. Richard Mills said the Taliban is desperate to regain momentum after being driven from its Helmand province stronghold in Marja a month ago by a Marine-led assault.

"I think the Taliban commander is back on his heels,'' Mills said. "He's losing Helmand province."

Unwilling to fight the Marines head-on, the Taliban will increasingly resort to suicide bombings and roadside bombs, even if the victims are Afghan civilians, Mills said.

"He's resorting to tactics of terrorism and intimidation," Mills said. "...An IED (improvised explosive device) doesn't differentiate between killing Marines and killing children on their way to school."

So we have a top military official saying that increased violence is actually indicative of the progress we're making against the insurgents. But he's not the first prominent public servant to make such a claim:

Fox News, October 27, 2003: Bush: Progress in Iraq Making Insurgents 'Desperate'

Despite two days of audacious, deadly attacks, President Bush insisted Monday that the United States is making progress in Iraq and said American successes are actually spurring the violence by making insurgents more desperate.

The article cites Howard Dean, John Kerry and Joe Lieberman as being critical of the President's claim that increased violence could be a sign of the insurgency's desperation, with Lieberman going so far as to say "it makes no sense," and Kerry likening the statement to the "light at the end of the tunnel" rhetoric from Vietnam.

Which of these fine gentleman will stand up and say the same now that it is Obama's war? More important, when will we as a nation stop accepting these nonsensical claims from our military officials and politicians?