Democrats Dug In For Retreat

Remember when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) yelled: "The war is lost!" into a microphone? I do. I remember thinking how disrespectful it was to the troops who were serving over in Iraq and Afghanistan and how it was no surprise that a Dem would so publically show such disrespect.

Well, the Dems seem to have invested themselves into Reid's position because they cannot seem to get a grip on reality nor do they seem the least bit able to communicate that reality to their followers. Over at Real Clear Politics, Charles Krauthammer shows us a quote that came from a man who was an outspoken war critic:

"No one can spend some 10 days visiting the battlefields in Iraq without seeing major progress in every area. ... If the U.S. provides sustained support to the Iraqi government -- in security, governance, and development -- there is now a very real chance that Iraq will emerge as a secure and stable state." -- Anthony Cordesman, "The Situation in Iraq: A Briefing from the Battlefield," Feb. 13, 2008

But the Dems just go meekly running back to Harry Reid and his disrespectful and pessimistic attitude.

Charles goes on:

We get news of the Anbar Awakening, which has now spread to other Sunni areas and Baghdad. The sectarian civil strife that the Democrats insisted was the reason for us to leave dwindles to the point of near disappearance. Much of Baghdad is returning to normal. There are 90,000 neighborhood volunteers -- ordinary citizens who act as auxiliary police and vital informants on terror activity -- starkly symbolizing the insurgency's loss of popular support. Captured letters of al-Qaeda leaders reveal despair as they are driven -- mostly by Iraqi Sunnis, their own Arab co-religionists -- to flight and into hiding. After agonizing years of searching for the right strategy and the right general, we are winning. How do Democrats react? From Nancy Pelosi to Barack Obama the talking point is the same: Sure, there is military progress. We could have predicted that. (They in fact had predicted the opposite, but no matter.) But it's all pointless unless you get national reconciliation. "National" is a way to ignore what is taking place at the local and provincial level, such as Shiite cleric Ammar al-Hakim, scion of the family that dominates the largest Shiite party in Iraq, traveling last October to Anbar in an unprecedented gesture of reconciliation with the Sunni sheiks. Doesn't count, you see. Democrats demand nothing less than federal-level reconciliation, and it has to be expressed in actual legislation.

And the fledgling Iraqi Parliament has passed more meaningful legislation in the past year than our own Dem controlled Congress has gotten out. In fact, the Iraqis passed a provincial powers law, a partial prisoner amnesty and an Iraqi Federal budget. What would the Dems say about this?

They will complain that there is still no oil distribution law. True. But oil revenues are being distributed to the provinces in the national budget. The fact that parliament could not agree on a permanent formula for the future simply means that it will be allocating oil revenues year-by-year as part of the budget process. Is that a reason to abandon Iraq to al-Qaeda and Iran? Despite all the progress military and political, the Democrats remain unwavering in their commitment to withdrawal on an artificial timetable that inherently jeopardizes our "very real chance that Iraq will emerge as a secure and stable state." Why? Imagine the transformative effects in the region and indeed in the entire Muslim world, of achieving a secure and stable Iraq, friendly to the United States and victorious over al-Qaeda. Are the Democrats so intent on denying George Bush retroactive vindication for a war they insist is his that they would deny their own country a now achievable victory?

And that's what it really comes down to, Bush Derangement Syndrome. The Dems are so blinded by hate for the current sitting President that they are willing to cause damage to the entire United States in order to hand President Bush an embarrassment.

Way to go Pelosi and Reid!

You can access the complete article on-line here:

Democrats Dug In For Retreat
Charles Krauthammer
RealClearPolitics.com
February 22, 2008