Washington DC Examiner9 August 2007
-There’s good news from Iraq, which has produced almost nothing but bad news since the 2003 invasion. The U.S. military surge, widely denounced as a last-ditch effort by an embattled, lame-duck president fighting an un-winnable civil war, is working. Even as vocal a war critic as Deputy Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin, D-Ill., has now acknowledged as much, telling CNN that the U.S. military is “making real progress.”
Gen. David Petraeus, commander of the multi-national force in Iraq and author of the counterinsurgency surge strategy now underway, told Talk Radio host Allen Colmes that during the past seven weeks, U.S. troops have inflicted “enormous damage” on al Qaeda forces in Iraq, causing three times the losses sustained by coalition forces. Petraeus added that al Qaeda in Iraq, which is responsible for most of the high-profile car bombings and suicide attacks, has been “clearly linked to the… al Qaeda senior leadership, located in the Pakistan Afghanistan border trial areas.” In other words, beating al Qaeda in Iraq is clearly a serious blow to Osama bin Laden wherever he is hiding.
The surge is also having a positive impact on Iraq’s political equation, according to Petraeus: “We’re also heartened by the number of Iraqi tribes and local citizens who have rejected al Qaeda. We cannot attribute that to the surge but the surge certainly enabled that to move much more rapidly, we believe, than it otherwise would have.”
Military and political progress is heartening but with it comes a critical decision for war critics, especially Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV, who declared the war lost months ago, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who last week pledged to continue seeking withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. Public support for the war effort has been growing in recent weeks and the expected positive report from Petraeus to Congress in mid-September will likely generate additional support for giving victory a chance. In other words, the political ground on which Reid and Pelosi are standing is shifting beneath them. Do they now really want to bring our boys home just when they are poised to win?
This is not the time to let arm-chair generals on Capitol Hill second-guess Petraeus by demanding arbitrary withdrawal dates, abruptly cutting off funding for the counterinsurgency, or interfering with his military decisions. If true bipartisanship was ever needed in Washington, it’s now — while our nation is engaged in a military struggle with a dangerous, determined enemy.
Link: http://www.examiner.com/a-872285~The_surge_is_working__What_now_.html#article
So, Dickie Durbin went from calling us Nazis to admiting that we are making progress in the GWOT? I’m supposed to be thrilled with this? We knew about the progress all along, even though the MSM reports every negative story no matter how incredibly stupid. The Democrats don’t want us to win. Not in Iraq, not in Afghanistan, not here. They are so desperate for defeat, Al Jazeera has them on speed dial. No matter how good the progress, the MSM will simply belch out American casualties and internal political strife as if there has been no compromise, establishment of infrastructure, or al Qadea getting their asses handed to them. Had the modern day media existed in WWII, we’d all be speaking Japanese.
Now that success is palpable even to the Left, they’re still putting a spin on it. This time it’s presented as “it doesn’t matter”. During a 9 August interview on the Today Show, John McCain fielded questions from leftist NBC pundit Matt Lauer:
LAUER: “You, you’ve been in Congress a long time, in the Senate for an awfully long time. You now which way the wind is blowing. There are some people who say, Senator, that the momentum, right now, in Congress is so strong to pull the troops out of Iraq that it doesn’t matter what’s in that report in the middle of September from General Petraeus, or even in reports that follow that. Even if we start to change momentum in Iraq and start to see more success, the momentum in Congress is already so strong that it’s unstoppable. How do you feel about that?”
McCAIN: “We are, we are winning there. The strategy is succeeding. It’s only been in place for a short time. The previous strategy, which I bitterly opposed and, and proposed this strategy caused Americans to be very frustrated and angry and sad at the sacrifice that’s been made. This strategy is winning –”
LAUER: “But is it going to matter? Is it going to matter? Is Congress going to wait for it to take hold and, until we see true success?”
McCain stressed that one of the battlefields in this war is on the floor of Congress and he vowed to be there leading the fight. Failure, he said, would be catastophic and lead to more sacrifice.
The Democrats’ greatest fear is being realized. Not only is success being achieved in Iraq and Afghanistan, but it’s being affirmed by General Petraeus.
What kind of ‘true success’ does Lauer need? Establishment of Parliament/s? Done. Voting rights? Done. Elimination of a WMD-wielding, al Qadea-supporting megalomaniac? Done. Pounding Al Qadea’s ass in Iraq and the Taliban’s in Afghanistan? Done.
The Democrats and their media lap dogs are so far to the Left they make Karl Marx look like a moderate. We didn’t start this war; a fact conveniently neglected by defeatist politicians and the Fifth Column. Instead of defending the United States they have done everything they can to subvert our efforts.
Having said that, why haven’t the sedition laws been enforced? Nancy Pelosi violated the Logan Act when she cavorted with Assad. Harry (white flag) Reid all but declared his allegiance to the Al Qadea on the floor of the Senate.
If there ever is another large-scale terrorist attack on this country, the MSM and the coterie of anti-war miscreants can pat themselves on the back.