It's an amazing morning when the liberal Washington Post starts an editorial like this:
"THE EVIDENCE is now overwhelming that the "surge" of U.S. military forces in Iraq this year has been, in purely military terms, a remarkable success. By every metric used to measure the war -- total attacks, U.S. casualties, Iraqi casualties, suicide bombings, roadside bombs -- there has been an enormous improvement since January. U.S. commanders report that al-Qaeda has been cleared from large areas it once controlled and that its remaining forces in Iraq are reeling. Markets in Baghdad are reopening, and the curfew is being eased; the huge refugee flow out of the country has begun to reverse itself. Credit for these achievements belongs in large part to U.S. soldiers in Iraq, who took on a tremendously challenging new counterterrorism strategy and made it work; to Gen. David H. Petraeus, the architect of that strategy; and to President Bush, for making the decision to launch the surge against the advice of most of Congress and the country's foreign policy elite." (Iraq's Narrow Window)
The editorial does not give the Bush administration an A-plus. There are still problems but improvements are all over the board. Frankly, things were not perfect in Europe 1945 either! There are always challenges. The key is the trend line. In Iraq, the trend line is good. See Sects unite to battle Al Qaeda in Iraq! See It's true: Iraq is a quagmire for Al Qaeda by Jack Kelly! See Looking At Iraq In Macro-time By Michael Barone!
Yet, the Dems don't want to see or even admit that success is happening in Iraq. At some point, this is beyond partisanship. This is dishonesty.
The Dems should listen to liberal Michael Goodwin (Despite a mortal terrorist threat against America, Dem contenders see no evil).
The Dems' party base is so angry with Pres. Bush that they have lost their common sense. Frankly, the base is going to be very disappointed if Obama or Clinton walk into the Oval Office. A future Dem president is going to have fight this war and that won't make the defeatist base happy. The war on terror is about awful choices and options. The choices are not going to get better because a Dem is in the Oval Office. (Just ask Bill Clinton about dealing with Iraq and the Security Council in '98)
How unhappy is the base going to be with a Dem president? Ask them about Pelosi and Reid. In the meantime, it'd be honest for a Dem presidential candidate to challenge the party base and praise the success in Iraq.
No comments:
Post a Comment