July 30, 2007
Good news can sway even the harshest skeptics
Hugh Hewitt notes and quotes an opinion piece in the NY Times today.
Here is the most important thing Americans need to understand: We are finally getting somewhere in Iraq, at least in military terms. As two analysts who have harshly criticized the Bush administration’s miserable handling of Iraq, we were surprised by the gains we saw and the potential to produce not necessarily “victory” but a sustainable stability that both we and the Iraqis could live with.
And Dean Barnett points out why this particular op/ed piece is significant:
As many early-risers including Hugh have already noted, the New York Times ran a potentially seismic op-ed piece today by Michael O’Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack of the hard left Brookings Institution. The authors have just returned from a trip to Iraq, and they saw what everyone else has seen – noteworthy progress:
After the furnace-like heat, the first thing you notice when you land in Baghdad is the morale of our troops. In previous trips to Iraq we often found American troops angry and frustrated — many sensed they had the wrong strategy, were using the wrong tactics and were risking their lives in pursuit of an approach that could not work.
Today, morale is high. The soldiers and marines told us they feel that they now have a superb commander in Gen. David Petraeus; they are confident in his strategy, they see real results, and they feel now they have the numbers needed to make a real difference…
How much longer should American troops keep fighting and dying to build a new Iraq while Iraqi leaders fail to do their part? And how much longer can we wear down our forces in this mission? These haunting questions underscore the reality that the surge cannot go on forever. But there is enough good happening on the battlefields of Iraq today that Congress should plan on sustaining the effort at least into 2008.
By all means, read the whole thing. If the left has lost Brookings…I will monitor left wing Blogistan today for posts explaining why O’Hanlon and Pollack are in fact neo-con chickenhawk hacks and always have been.
One of the key takeaways from their report is that David Petraeus is doing an outstanding job. If you think that fact will inhibit the left’s attempts to minimize and marginalize him, you haven’t been paying attention the left over the past five years.
Barnett's last point is key; it doesn't matter what the reality on the ground is. The Moonbats aren't interested in reality, in defeating the enemy.
They're interested only in defeating the real enemy: Bushitler-Cheney-Halliburton-Blackwater, Inc.
Success in Iraq -- vanquishing our foreign enemies -- and any evidence of our progress in pursuit of that goal doesn't fit the predetermined storyline and must be denigrated, deconstructed and discounted as mere propaganda.
Because, you see, only our (supposed) foreign enemies speak truth to power.
But all is not gloom and doom; there are still clear-eyed members of the Loyal Opposition willing to be convinced. As Barnett said, "if the Left has lost Brookings ...."
Posted by Mike Lief at July 30, 2007 07:11 AM
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