Good news, but not for everyone

[Snowden]

Good news, but not for everyone
By Jeff Jacoby

Recent snapshots from the casino wars:

It's a war, and it's the Middle East, so glad tidings can go sour and there are never any guarantees. But for all the caveats, the news from Iraq has been heartening. For months, observers have been crediting General David Petraeus's "surge" with remarkable progress on the ground. That message has come not only from longtime supporters of the war, but from some tough critics as well.

Michael O'Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack, analysts at the left-leaning Brookings Institution, jolted Washington with their July 30 op-ed column, "A War We Just Might Win." Eleven days later, the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel, which had long pronounced the war a misbegotten disaster, radically revised its view. "The US military is more successful in Iraq than the world wants to believe," journalist Ullrich Fichtner reported in a detailed account. So much so that the outcome the Bush administration "erroneously predicted before their invasion — that the troops would be greeted with candy and flowers — could in fact still come true."

More good news came just this week in a breakthrough announced by Iraq's top Shiite, Sunni, and Kurdish politicians. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, President Jalal Talabani, Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi, and the Kurdish regional president, Massoud Barzani, are joining forces on legislation to settle some of the thorniest issues bedeviling Iraqi politics, including a national oil policy, an easing of de-Baathification, and the release of certain detainees.

For most Americans, it goes without saying that positive developments in Iraq are very welcome, and that victory would be even better. But not everyone feels that way. Good news is bad news for much of the Democratic left, where opposition to the war has become an emotional and political investment in defeat. House majority whip Jim Clyburn of South Carolina was asked by the Washington Post what Democrats would think if Petraeus reports next month that the war is going well. "That would be a real big problem for us," Clyburn candidly replied.

The intensity of the left's determination to abandon Iraq was reflected in the reaction to a single line in Hillary Clinton's speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars last week. "We've begun to change tactics in Iraq," she said, referring to the surge, "and in some areas, particularly al-Anbar province, it's working."

That mild comment instantly drew fire from Clinton's Democratic rivals. John Edwards's campaign manager, David Bonior, condemned her "ill-advised statement" and warned her against "undermining the effort in the Congress to end this war." New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, another presidential hopeful, piled on: "The surge is not working. I do not give President Bush the same credit on Iraq that Hillary does." When Barack Obama addressed the veterans one day later, he stuck to the defeatists' script. "Obama Sees a 'Complete Failure' in Iraq," the New York Times headlined its report on Aug. 22.

Within 48 hours of her VFW appearance, Clinton was scurrying to toe the all-is-lost line once again: "The surge was designed to give the Iraqi government time to take steps to ensure a political solution. It has failed..... We need to ... start getting out now."

Since 2002, Clinton has been all over the lot on Iraq. She defended George W. Bush's claims on WMDs ("the intelligence from Bush 1 to Clinton to Bush 2 was consistent"). She opposed setting a timetable for withdrawal ("I don't think you should ever telegraph your intentions to the enemy"). She voted yes on authorizing the war. She voted no on funding the troops. Her position, clearly, is a moveable feast, and we likely haven't seen the last of her shape-shifting.

Clinton is hardly the only presidential candidate prepared to say whatever it takes to get elected or to retreat under pressure from her party's hardliners. But it is worth pointing out: There is a principled alternative.

Consider Representative Brain Baird of Washington, a liberal Democrat. He has opposed the Iraq war from the outset, and still believes, as he wrote in a Seattle Times column on Friday, that it "may be one of the worst foreign-policy mistakes in the history of our nation." But having recently come to believe that the new military strategy is working and a premature US withdrawal would be disastrous, he is speaking out in support of staying the course. Naturally he is being denounced on the left; one influential blogger calls him a "Bush dog" and "Dick Cheney's trained monkey" and a crowd of angry antiwar constituents berated him during a townhall meeting Monday night. ("We don't care what your convictions are," said one. "You are here to represent us.") The heat is unpleasant. But Baird is standing his ground.

That is what John F. Kennedy called a profile in courage, and it is troubling that there are no such profiles among the Democrats running for president this year. JFK was elected at a time when Americans could trust the party he led to confront international threats with resolve. That changed after Vietnam, where the Democratic left insisted on defeat and got its way, only to lose the nation's trust on national security for a long time thereafter.
Today the left insists on defeat in Iraq. It beats up any Democrat who strays off-message. It treats good news from the front as "a real big problem." It advocates what JFK, in 1960, called "policies of retreat, defeat, and weakness." Is that any way to win an election? In the short term, maybe. But we're in the midst of a long-term war — a war that Americans don't want to lose.

Jeff Jacoby

[sfga6970]

The key to winning is not in Iraq, it is in Washington. These politicians don't care about our troops. The only thing they care about is getting elected or reelected. They are a bunch of selfish slimeballs. They have all perfected the political art of "spin". They twist faster than the whirling dervishes.

[Snowden]

Funny; I was out with Bob getting the paper and so forth and was telling him about this article. When we came back, I read your post to him, Paul. He said he couldn't agree more. In fact, it's pretty much what he was saying about it, if not as concisely put.

I find Hillary's continual blowing in the wind somewhat interesting. What a firm and trustworthy president she will be! Confidence isn't everything and it's about all she has to offer!

[centra]

There is plenty of good things happening in ra.

But first something you can do to show your support for the troops.

Victory Caucus - Petition: Stand By The Mission


Besides the good security news as a result of the US Surge, there is also Good Economic News coming from Iraq. read the rest here.
Gateway Pundit: More Good News From Iraq- 237 Dead Terrorists


More good news for some.

HOW MARINES PULLED FALLUJAH OUT OF HELL | By RALPH PETERS | Columnists | Steve Dunleavy | Andrea Peyser

How life returned to the streets in a showpiece city that drove out al-Qaeda - Times Online

Multi-National Force - Iraq - Marines kill 12 AQI near Karmah


BACK FROM HELL | By RALPH PETERS | Opinions | Scott Stringer | Adam Brodsky

More Big Picturing

Gulfnews: Sarkozy 'corrects' Chirac's errors

LawkSalih.Com - Oil, Gas, Petrochemical & Electricity Summit

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Pat Dollard | Young Americans | Blog Archive » The Late Captain Patriquin’s “How To Win The War In Al Anbar”

Small Wars Journal: SWJ Blog: Anatomy of a Tribal Revolt: Print This

Talisman Gate بـاب الطلــسم: Marked Decrease in Al-Qaeda Operations

Desperados

plenty more all over the net. Too bad our MSM doesn't want to tell us ALL of the news.

[Snowden]

Bad news seems to sell more papers, Centra. These addresses look like good news, so the liberals I know wouldn't be interested. They would sneer and say we are evil and stupid.

Thanks for posting these addresses!

[centra]

Originally Posted by Snowden

Bad news seems to sell more papers, Centra. These addresses look like good news, so the liberals I know wouldn't be interested. They would sneer and say we are evil and stupid.

Thanks for posting these addresses!

Your welcome. And unfortunately you are correct about good news.

[sfga6970]

I have a good friend at my Legion Post who has a Niece and Nephew that have just returned from Iraq and he said that things are getting better there no matter what the media is reporting. They are both willing to go back and continue the progress they have made. Most of the talking heads that write these reports for the media have never been there and I doubt if any of them are veterans. They are just reporting "hearsay evidence" and only report what will give them headlines.