Republican Presidential candidate John McCain announced yesterday that the US is no longer "staring into the abyss of defeat” in Iraq. When McCain was later asked what kind of topography would best describe the situation in Iraq, he said it looks much more like a “chasm of quagmire” and he challenged anyone to deny that that wasn’t proof that the surge is working. “I’ll tell you one thing,” McCain said testily, “I’d much prefer to be looking into a chasm of quagmire than staring into an abyss of defeat.”