Captain's Quarters -

Well, we can always do a 2nd amendment type of policy. As we leave, flood the area with small arms to the point where everyone has one. Then the majority can vote with their trigger fingers.

It's the kind of finish the Democrats want, but with non-insurgents also holding weapons.

Since the day the Democrats voted to end our quagmire in Iraq all these positive stories suddenly appear. If I see a few months of positive stories I will change my opinion of this long fiasco. Plus I will need to see Maliki share the oil revenues, reverse the de-baathification policies and amend the constitution, all steps to get the Sunnis to join the political process. One thing I will never forget is how the rightwingers(not you Captain,you've always been fair) questioned my patriotism. I will never forget that Joseph McCarthy tactic.

That 2nd Amendment suggestion isn't half bad, but how about taking the "Show them how a real democracy works" approach a little farther? I hereby propose that we close the U. S Capitol for 18 months, during which time Congress will meet in Ramadi, with or without U.S. troops in the area to provide security.

I added an excerpt and link to my 2007.04.29 Dem Perfidy // Islamism Delenda Est Roundup.

CD,

Should we get out the violin for ya?

Nice post CE; thanks...

conservative democrats said:

"One thing I will never forget is how the rightwingers(not you Captain,you've always been fair) questioned my patriotism. I will never forget that Joseph McCarthy tactic."

Your Democrats didn't vote to end a "quagmire", they voted to set a date for surrender to our enemies. Ask any member of the military, they'll tell you the same thing.

As for people questioning your "patriotism", you can't claim to support our troops without supporting their mission as the two are one and the same. And yet you call what they're trying to do a "quagmire" and a "fiasco". Calling out someone for your type of thinking isn't "McCarthyism" at all.

As Bush said in 2003:

"Our mission continues. Al Qaeda is wounded, not destroyed. The scattered cells of the terrorist network still operate in many nations, and we know from daily intelligence that they continue to plot against free people. The proliferation of deadly weapons remains a serious danger. The enemies of freedom are not idle, and neither are we. Our government has taken unprecedented measures to defend the homeland. And we will continue to hunt down the enemy before he can strike. (Applause.)

The war on terror is not over; yet it is not endless. We do not know the day of final victory, but we have seen the turning of the tide. No act of the terrorists will change our purpose, or weaken our resolve, or alter their fate. Their cause is lost. Free nations will press on to victory. (Applause.) "

CD, I was actually pleasantly surprised to see your comments here. When progress is reported, most dissenters here go into hiding or we get alot of, "yea, buts".

So as long as we're winning, we have your support. Thanks. Everyone loves a winner. It's when things get tough that we need your help though. Are you prepared to stand for your Country when things get tough again, as they will and do in war?

I've believed in the mission almost from day one. The Mission being a 180 deg. detour of all prior Administrations' support of ME tyrants as long as they were our tyrants. This is not a 5-10 year battle. This will take a generation or two.

Our troops need the backing of Winter Patriots. So your affronted that people here question your patriotism. You've revealed to all here the kind of patriot you are, a sunshine patriot. Well, we've got too many of those.

With all due respect, that is a very qualified article (much more than the two sentences listed here), and the recent gains appear to have more to do with local tribal leaders than the so-called surge. and because the area is homogenous sunni, there is little of the sectarian violence there than in other place in the country, which will make the fragile gains here tough to duplicate.

Conservative democrat -- Suddenly you are impressed by the 'unexpected' good news coming out of Iraq.

You had every opportunity to hear about this first hand from the men (and women) involved in making it happen for the last five years, just as we had. This war has been unprecendented in the direct access of the American people to the troops and workers in the field via the internet.

Yet from your posts, you seem to have been perfectly content to swallow your filtered news from the media and the Democratic party. Did you ever make the slightest effort to see for yourself if what they told you was correct or honest?

If you don't want your patriotism questioned, you shouldn't parrot the talking points of people who don't have any.

I don't know which is better news: that things are looking up a bit in Anbar, or that the NYT is actually reporting it. If the security situation continues to improve, I predict that Grand Admiral Reid and Commissar Pelosi will take credit. You know: "Thanks to our tough policy, we've managed to pull Iraq from the quagmire. Time to start planning for V-I Day!"

SoldiersMom nails it about "sunshine patriots". Think about it: if Grand Admiral Reid, Commissar Pelosi, Field Marshall al-Murtha and the rest of the Benedict Arnolds had their way, we would never have heard about this because the surge never would have taken place because we'd have left long before now. al-Iraqi, instead of languishing in a cell in Gitmo (where his civil rights are no doubt being violated... and where the ACLU is tirelessly working to get him freed), would be planning more bombings like those he apparently masterminded in London. Zarqawi might still even be alive, planning attacks against US interests abroad or perhaps recruiting another group of loonies to stage attacks against us here at home. I can't know for certain, of course, but I expect that spending so much time running for his life might have upset his ability to plan grand attacks against us just a little bit.

If we win in Iraq, it will be due solely to the courage and skill of the men and women of our armed forces (God bless 'em!), the courage and determination of the Iraqi people... and the perseverence of George Bush.

conservative quisling wrote (April 29, 2007 04:49 PM):

Plus I will need to see Maliki share the oil revenues, reverse the de-baathification policies and amend the constitution, all steps to get the Sunnis to join the political process.

Wow. Didn't the Cap'n post about moving the goal posts just the other day? What will the quislings set as the next goal posts? That Iraqis give up smoking, stop eating trans fats, drive hybrid cars, sign Kyoto, and recognize homosexual marriage?

"There were six traffic accidents in Baghdad last week! QUAGMIRE! FAILURE! BUSH'S FAULT!!!!"

One thing I will never forget is how the rightwingers(not you Captain,you've always been fair) questioned my patriotism. I will never forget that Joseph McCarthy tactic.

Yeah, I'm sure that Benedict Arnold, Jefferson Davis, Julius Rosenberg, Alger Hiss and Jane Fonda didn't like people saying bad things about them, either. I mean, just because a person sells out our country is no excuse to call them names, is it?

/sarcasm

Come to think of it, I'm sure all us "chickenhawks" and "reichwingers" have had our fill of lefty McCarthyist namecalling. And I'd hate to think how Bush and Cheney deal with the steady stream of vicious hatred that comes their way every single day.

Wow, McCarthy tactics and name calling? It seems the left would know more about that than the right...

Jim C

With all due respect to CD, awww, people questioned your patriotism which you likened to Mccarthyism. Meanwhile whole movements have embraced the truth that somehow GW Bush had a hand in blowing up planes to start a war, that he and Cheney were in league with Osama, that he deliberately was negligent in the big easy because he hates black people, some went even further saying that someone (most likely tied to the administration) actually blew up the levees in N.O. because of, I guess, racial animus. Your side has caused conservatives chicken hawks, war mongers, nazis, neo cons as if it were a sneer. And you're mad because some people question your patriotism. I suppose you also say that it was Bush and not those who would say he went to war because of his daddy, because of a nonexistent pipeline in afghanistan,that he's a boy king, that he's trying to bring about theocracy, that he's Hitler reincarnated.
Should I go on, or do you get the picture. The amount of demagoguery and falsehood and smear, and slander, and lack of patriotism from your side of the aisle is enough to make professional demagogues, and slanderers and rapscallions to blush and feel inadequate.

Go cry me a river you hypocrite.

RE: docjim505 (April 29, 2007 06:53 PM)
...moving the goal posts... What will the quislings set as the next goal posts? That Iraqis give up smoking, stop eating trans fats, drive hybrid cars, sign Kyoto, and recognize homosexual marriage?

LOL. Really.

(updated to fix previous post errors)
With all due respect to CD, awww, people questioned your patriotism which you likened to Mccarthyism. Meanwhile a whole movement has embraced the truth that somehow GW Bush had a hand in having planes crash into the Pentagon and WTC to start a war, that he and Cheney were in league with Osama, that he had Osama the whole time during the elections but was holding him for political purposes, that he deliberately was negligent in the big easy because he hates black people, some went even further saying that someone (most likely tied to the administration) actually blew up the levees in N.O. because of, I guess, racial animus.

Your side has called conservatives who support this war adn the troops chicken hawks (though of course supposedly the dems support afghanistan the "real" war, yet are never called chicken hawks for supporting that), war mongers, nazis, neo cons as if it were a sneer.
And you're mad because some people question your patriotism. I suppose you also say that it was Bush and not those who would say he went to war because of his daddy, because of a nonexistent pipeline in afghanistan,that he's a boy king, that he's trying to bring about theocracy, that he's Hitler reincarnated that lowered the tone in Washington.

Should I go on, or do you get the picture. The amount of demagoguery and falsehood and smear, and slander, and lack of patriotism from your side of the aisle is enough to make professional demagogues, and slanderers and rapscallions to blush and feel inadequate for their efforts.

Go cry me a river you hypocrite.

One thing I will never forget is how the rightwingers(not you Captain,you've always been fair) questioned my patriotism. I will never forget that Joseph McCarthy tactic.

Why does this sound like a threat? Is the conservative democrat gleefully looking forward to the troops being pulled out and Iraq officially being labeled a "loss for America just like Vietnam"? At which point he can stomp around and shout "I told you so!" and pat himself on the back.

Or is the conservative democrat looking forward to having a Democratic President in office, someone who has already built a reputation for herself for firing political opponents and sic'ing the IRS on them? So that good little democrats like the conservative one here have merely to make up and submit their Official Democratic Enemies List of Those Who Called Him Unpatriotic to be able to watch the rest of us pro-war posters immediately be in a world of hurt?

For years now, the definition of "racist" has been what a conservative is called by a liberal when the liberal is losing the argument and has no facts. I guess "unpatriotic" is the new "racist" when a Democrat has no facts but his little feelings have been hurted.

I had earlier read that prior to his assuming his role in the current counterinsurgency effort in Iraq, Gen. Petraeus (not a Gen. at the time) had several successes in hotbed areas with the method he is employing now. By clearing and holding the affected areas, he afterward funneled the funds for rebuilding out of Baghdad and put them into the hands of the locals, who self-determined how those funds were to be used. The citizens of that area were gainfully employed and had reason to protect their personal investment. Some of the places disintegrated because security support left the area too soon. With the increased manpower of the surge and its opportunities to create a more secure atmosphere and train the locals more fully in their own protection, I rather doubt that these cleaned up neighborhoods would allow terrorist insurgents to refoul their nests.

That said, it is obvious that the thwarted jihadists will escalate their atrocities in order to demoralize the citizens. These spectacular bombings are the psy-ops of a desparate enemy. Should the Iraqis recognize that the troops are committed to helping them to establish a more stable life, the Iraqis in areas of repeated unrest will root out their own troublemakers.

The undermining of these growing successes by the Dem leadership is a sad reflection of their lack of long-range thinking in foreign policy.

It is absoluting disgusting to learn that Commando Pelosi has applied for a visa to hobnob in Iran. She had better show a little less of her gams there than she did with Baby Assad. Could she possibly be looking for a new burkah to add to her spring collection?

BTW ConDem should check out some of the military blogs linked by Captain Ed.

Call me the contrarian. But in the "big stick" category nothing freaked Maliki out more than what was going on in Congress.

You may think it sounded like a retreat. But, it was more like "last call" the party's over. Over there.

As to "surge," at least we're allowing our soldiers to use guns. And, fire on terrorists. Not always the case, over there, ya know?

Anbar, is SUNNI. So the "contained terror," which is funded by the House of Saud, might also have had the faucets shut (temporarily), to a trickle.

They're arabs.

They're used to putting Americans over a barrel. And, picking their pockets.

And, what Harry & Nancy did could'a been what spooked the Iraqis into realizing "nothing lasts forever."

Meanwhile, off to the side, IRAQ THE MODEL, comments about the members of the Iraqi parliament; who hardly ever pass laws that would help the populace; deciding to toodle off for a two month hiatus.

At IRAQ THE MODEL, when the suicide bomber exploded inside the parliament's cafeteria; the blog said "who cares about them?" They're always getting between what's good for the people; and the American military. Usually stopping searches, and checkpoints, because it makes it inconvenient for their own travel. And, they travel about in armored cars.

While the problems are really still there. Including the fact that each group wants independence. But each group also wants more than a fair share of the oil wealth.

Anyway, "somebody" is still supplying the billions for tructs to explode in "inconvenient places."

Ass to the spitting contest between flinging words "liberal" and "conservative" ... it's about as impressive as watching a boy piss his name in the sand. Or snow. MEANINGLESS.

And, worse. When you do your accounting, you discover the odd relationship between being in the minority; and not even being able to grow the GOP party. It's a balloon with a hole in it.

For instance. None of our troops ever meet the locals. They're on fortified bases. Meeting each other. And, hoping for the best. Especially to get out, and home. In one piece.

Troops who've been to Anbar, say it's so disgusting. With garbage in the streets. And, no plumbing whatsoever; that when they first went in, some soldiers puked from the smells. And, the sites.

Again. We're calling this a "war on terror." Without stopping the Madrassas'es from supplying a never-ending group of males, detached from all reality. Looking for vigins in heaven. Or hell. Or wherever it is they think they'll see females. Since obviously nothing is being taught to them, at all, that meets realistic standards.

Oh, the Shi'ites still hate the Sunni's. And, vice versa. There is no surge to cure the underlying problems, that got exposed when Saddam's rule ended. But who knows what else has replaced it?

Go ahead. Yell to your heart's content about Nancy and Harry. The Ma and Pa Kettle approach to lots of Americans has not produced, what you thought it would: A climb in GOP power.

When Bill Clinton was president, he was the focus of everything in DC. Now? Dubya is in hiding. And, he's not the focus for what passes for political conversations.

Me? I think it's a good thing for the Iraqis to face a reality that their show is not a hit show, here. And, that if they don't get their acts together, we won't shut them down. But they'll have to find some other country to protect their rears.

Drudge provides a link to a "free sample" of Tenet's new book.

He also says that the book is #3, now, up at Amazon. with a 40% "off" sticker.

If you want to take a peek, you can go here:

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1615848,00.html

AD --
"..moving the goal posts... What will the quislings set as the next goal posts? That Iraqis give up smoking, stop eating trans fats, drive hybrid cars, sign Kyoto, and recognize homosexual marriage?"

Back when Bremer and State were trying to manage the reconstruction, they actually had mandated quotas for hiring minorities and women in their contracts... because those were the big problems facing Iraq, of course...

cd ... One thing I will never forget is how the rightwingers(not you Captain,you've always been fair) questioned my patriotism. I will never forget that Joseph McCarthy tactic.

You show selfishness in that last comment. You just said even if you turn out to be wrong on Iraq ("I will change my opinion") you will still have a grievance. Nevermind the added difficulties for our soldiers caused by you and your friends these last couple years. No, no, no, conservative democrat's feelings were hurt on this blog and we won't be allowed to forget that.

It's all about you. I don't care that anyone called you a name. I do care that our soldiers have felt frustration because their message hasn't been heard by half of this country. For that I blame people like you.

Well, with two more years to go to Bush's administration; it seems the "breakdown" comes from those inside. Who went outside.

And, the words are flowing. Even though the President was never really pro-active about speech. So there's none of his dialogue out there; where you could say "you heard him close the sale."

Tenet?

A big enough target.

According to Drudge? 60-Minutes got lots of viewers, tonight. And, that's the purpose of May Sweeps.

Kristol has come out saying that ONE FACT Tenet does not have down, right. Is his remark; that on September 12th ... as he was walking into the Oval Office; Richard Perle was exiting. And, made a remark about "fait accompli" for entering I-R-A-K.

Turns out, Perle was in Paris. And, couldn't get a flight back to the States till September 15th. Because all of our airports were shut. I seem to remember that. So, it seems Tenet went for the "pull down" against a neo-con. Only trouble? He wasn't there.

Condi is also out there, swinging. Saying that "everyone thought the intelligence on WMD's were there. And, at Drudge? Going back to the time Bill Clinton was in office; you get the claims on why Clinton ordered Baghdad attacked. "Fly-overs." WMD's.

And, given that we've got the goods. You can hear the clips. We've gone from a time going into I-R-A-K made sense. The 3 weeks Tommy Franks was there. To Paul Bremer's arrival. And, his incompetence.

So, yeah. Tenet's book is driven. By what? Well, he doesn't want to be blamed for "slam dunk." Which he says, basially, was NOT the reason we went to I-R-A-K.

Poorly managed?

Probably.

For what it's worth.

But if the House of Saud were actually handed the keys to Iraq. The keys to syria. And, throw in a terrorist state along Israel's curves; you could see that things could'a gone so much worse!

What did we lose? A few politicians under the bus. And, Tony Blair in England, not so much a friend of Bush's anymore. Did we need this friendship in the first place?

As soon as individuals get out of the name-calling business. Perhaps, just leaving it to the Code Pink "professionals?" We could begin to come to terms with ... what happens when the souffle falls? What happens when you want your guests to think you're the greatest cook in the world, and your meal bombs?

It's not as if Bush is on this rising curve.

Anyway, one cook does not make the broth of a nation. Everyone has good and bad days. Especially when they're trying to figure our what's best. And, they participate in voting.

And, Bush's team fell apart. He's still got two years left to being President. It would be a pity of it's one small group on the right, who curse out everybody else.

While over at the left, you'd think their noisemakers would have made their politicians unpopular. Nope. They're in the center. And, holding onto their extra ONE PERCENT.

You could have fooled me that the Ma and Pa Kettle act, would be working. But, what can I say? They haven't lost a thing. And, its the President who is made to look incompetent.

Can you think of "circus" without clowns?

Can you think of politicians who have their hands on the majority levers, keeping control with a Ma and Pa Kettle act? They're the professionals. I'm just watching. And, the air's gone out of the GOP balloon. How da ya fix that?

It's been a bad day for the democrats. They found out that heat (fire) really does melt or weaken steel until a structure falls. I guess half ot the fruits won't be delivered to SF tomorrow. Did someone make that happen without a fatality to prove a point to the SF elitest? If I were one of them I'd find a church real quick.
On top of that there is verified progress in Iraq.
Heads exploding and brains (although small) frying in the democrat party.

"What does appear certain is that this former stronghold of Ba'athist resentment no longer wants to exist in a cycle of oppression, liberation, and destruction. They want to end the fighting by eliminating the insurgents."

Amen. We can go around and around about this amongst ourselves and all we will get is a headache and nauseous. I am not a big Christopher Hitchens fan on social policy; however, his brilliant assessement of defending our current position on Iraq and our justification of entering this war is spot on. He wrote this in March, but it is worth printing out and keeping handy.

http://www.slate.com/id/2162157/

The Iraqis must step up. On our part we must not give up. We not only owe them that much we owe our brave men and women who represented this nation with honor that much. The constant hand wringing and carping is sickening. It is sad how it seems the very evil we are fighting has more will than we do. I know our military can do whatever we ask of them, can we at least have the will to stand by them and see this to its justified end..

"Questioning patriotism" is one of those things like "twenty-three skiddoo" that has no meaning anymore. I might as well question somebody's "moxie".

Calling for your country to lose a war is disloyal to your country.

If this were a formally declared war, like the Second World War, in the English-speaking world anybody agitating for a "political settlement" was liable for a prison term. In the non-English speaking world--and I don't just mean the Axis--it was a shooting offense.

Maybe you think morality and justice force you to be disloyal to your country. Then, stand up and talk about how right it is to be disloyal.
Don't bother complaining that your loyalty is at issue; you might as well jump in a river and then balk at being called "wet".

onlineanalyst wrote (April 29, 2007 08:42 PM):

I had earlier read that prior to his assuming his role in the current counterinsurgency effort in Iraq, Gen. Petraeus (not a Gen. at the time) had several successes in hotbed areas with the method he is employing now. By clearing and holding the affected areas, he afterward funneled the funds for rebuilding out of Baghdad and put them into the hands of the locals, who self-determined how those funds were to be used. The citizens of that area were gainfully employed and had reason to protect their personal investment. Some of the places disintegrated because security support left the area too soon. [emphasis mine - dj505]

This sort of thing happened a lot in Vietnam: we and / or massive numbers of South Vietnamese forces would go into a VC-controlled area, shoot up a few VC, declare it "pacified", toss in a few civic actions teams, then leave too early. The VC would return, kill anybody who'd been stupid enough to cooperate with the US / ARVN, and reestablish their control in short order.

In effect, this is exactly what Grand Admiral Reid and Commissar Pelosi want to do in Iraq. Oh, they'll let W have his surge... so long as he agrees to bug out as soon as it's over and thus undo any good that it might bring. Almost a good a recipe for defeat as ordering our troops to shoot themselves.

That said, it is obvious that the thwarted jihadists will escalate their atrocities in order to demoralize the citizens. These spectacular bombings are the psy-ops of a desparate enemy. Should the Iraqis recognize that the troops are committed to helping them to establish a more stable life, the Iraqis in areas of repeated unrest will root out their own troublemakers.

Classic counterinsurgency theory. The terrorists wouldn't have to resort to random bombings if they had any level of control in the bombed areas. They'd either rely on death squads to selectively take out those who oppose them, or the population would be so cowed that such wouldn't even be necessary. Remember when Mookie and his thugs controlled some areas of Iraq, and there were islamist kangaroo courts in operation? We don't hear much about that anymore, which is a sign that Mookie lost control of those areas. That doesn't mean that the fight's over; we can't leave until the ISF is strong enough to keep him from coming back... and the people are confident enough in their own government that they will assist the ISF.

RE: richard mcenroe (April 29, 2007 09:55 PM)

About the quotas... I don't doubt it. Hopefully such inconsequential hand tying has been purged from the process by now. Better late than never.

The Democrats continue their race to quit, hoping to turn the positive negative and empowering Al Qaeda and associated insurgents through continued encouragement that American politics will turn sour if only they bomb just a bit longer. Note al-Murtha and his new rhetoric of impeachment proceedings against Bush.

As far the patriotism of certain quarters who reflexively and disingenuously lambaste this administration on Iraq, Afghanistan, and the WoT, I quit questioning it long ago. It's been a settled issue for me for well over a year. As The Yell suggests, they're all wet.

Is it even worth noting that when the Right challenges the Left, the simpletons call it "McCarthy tactics"…but when the Left challenges the Right, the simpletons call it "Truth to Power"...?

Folks....think about how good things MUST be in iraq for the NYTimes to have reported this....keep in mind, this is the same paper that said killing zarqawi was a bad thing (he's a martyr now) and has consistently (and still is, even in this story) ignored all the good news out of Baghdad.

For that particular rag to report this kind of progress is simply spectacular....this tells me that if the NYTimes is staying true to form, if they saw so much progress that they realized they had no more choice BUT to report SOME of it, things must be really good over there....I am truly amazed.

Time for a victory lap because the NYT reported something favorable about Iraq?

I was wondering where the few remaining Bush supporters were hiding out, and I finally found them here on CQ's.

If Pelosi and Reid act to light a fire under the Iraqis to get their s#%t together with a timetable, then so be it. If the good cop/ bad cop routine works, great.

The fact is, the American people are growing tired of the war, and Bush and Cheney better figure something out fast-- like yesterday. Parallels to Vietnam abound, and it doesn't bode well for us.

The "surge" might work-- God knows they should have done it four years ago when they had the resolve of the American people.

This war has been a disaster by every available metric, and to be fair, it's hard to blame the anti-war contingent for its failure so far. Bush has received every soldier and every cent he has asked for, and it has cost a lot more than had been predicted by Wolfie and Cheney in 2003.

This war won't be won or lost by one article in the NYT or by the relative and temporary peace of Anbar province. A hundred US soldiers died in April. The people are growing restless and weary.

There are miles to go....

The following is an example of what is to be found over at Grodge...

Peeking Over The Precipice

Logging on to Google News today, these are the top six stories. Perhaps Google is a participant in the Great Liberal Media Conspiracy (TM).

No embellishment. The stories speak for themselves:

Large anti-US rally held in Iraq

Iran 'closer to nuclear weapons'

Commentary: Immigration plan unites far right and far left

Gingrich urges Gonzales to quit

U.S. Senator calls for engaging Syria

New Book Shows Bleak Outlook for Iraq Because of US Mismanagement

Each of these stories is representative of some aspect of the Bush administration's rank incompetence on various issues: occupation, diplomacy and immigration. And this is a random sample on a given day.

I have two words for you Grodge "Retarded Liberal"; don't like those two, how about "Liberal Scumbag", or "Geek Wimp"... Dang, so many choices...

Go read some mil blogs Grodge if you actually care to find out what is really going on in Iraq; until then, you're just another spoon fed idiot Liberal.

http://www.austinbay.net/blog/
http://www.blackfive.net/
http://strengthandhonor.typepad.com/captaink/
http://www.mudvillegazette.com/

I love how the Dems are now positioning themselves to take credit for the recent successes in Anbar and other areas of Iraq. They will not credit the surge, but want us to believe it was their playing good cop/bad cop. Unfortunately for them, most of us know both cops have to be working together on the same page for that to be a working model. Their goal was to undermine and humiliate Bush at any cost, even if it meant to lose a war we were beginning to win. It terrifies them that if this thing turns around, it will vindicate Bush and those stalwarts with calcium in their spines, Joe Lieberman included.

The Unholy Trio of Pelosi, Reid, and al-Murtha have undermined our ability to win this conflict and have prolonged it by giving hope, aid, and comfort to our enemies. Their public statements encouraged them to continue fighting. Chuck Hagel (R-Ino) didnt help much either....

Yes, the Bush Administration has made big mistakes after the initial success of Tommy Franks. But the biggest mistake would be to crawl away like worms after all we have sacrificed to get to this point. It is a testament to Bush's character that he has not wavered in his commitment to victory.

We made big mistakes in WW2 but we still won because we persevered and slugged it out. Remember the ill fated Operation Market Garden and the phrase "Home by Christmas?". Or when our troops went into Bastogne with summer clothing and hardly any ammo. Remember the term "Nuts!"? The 101st stuck it out until Patton broke through. How many Generals did Lincoln run through before he found Ulysses Grant and William Sherman? Go back further to Valley Forge. Washington stuck it out and "stayed the course". I, for one, am damn glad he didn't listen to the whiners and micromanagers in Congress. (Some things never change). That experience is one of the reasons the Founding Fathers created a strong President and made him Commander in Chief.... Memo to Pelosi and Reid.

Yes, Bremer was supremely incompetent and Rummy would not listen and support sending more troops. The Democrats assailed Bush for his determination to "stay the course". So, Bush changes course on the war and nominates Petraus and his counterinsurgency strategy. The Senate overwhelmingly confirms him, and what do the unholy trio do? They declare the war lost and pull the rug out from under Petraus. All so they can position themselves to gain personal political power.

I do indeed question the patriotism of those Benedict Arnolds.

I applaud Duncan Hunter for calling on Reid to step down and I am also impressed that David Broder had the stones to tell his liberal constituency that Emperor Reid has no clothes.

Publius Hamilton

If you want evidence of progress, check out this link. http://www.understandingwar.org/IraqReport.html

"This war has been a disaster by every available metric, and to be fair, it's hard to blame the anti-war contingent for its failure so far."

I guess by "available" you mean to discount the previous metrics of disaster: looting, no cops, no Iraqi army, no Iraqi government, no constitution, no elections, no Iraqi oil production, Fallujah as a separate city-state, Sadr City as a separate city-state...

Those are not "available" because they have been corrected at great price. Their absence was the reason we were losing, yet their achievement somehow counts not at all.

Our Arab allies had it worse in the Arab-Israeli wars and they will not be sympathetic if we can't stomach the "disaster" in Iraq.

And the American people have the Democrat alternative before them: another year of IEDs and mortar bomb casualties for a defeat.,