Laughing At The Democrats

You know it’s bad when an anchor from CNN, the second most biased network on the planet next to Al-Jazeera, is laughing at you:

A front-page story in The Post last week suggested that the Bush administration has no backup plan in case the surge in Iraq doesn’t work. I wonder if The Post and other newspapers have a backup plan in case it does.

Leading journalists have been reporting for some time that the war was hopeless, a fiasco that could not be salvaged by more troops and a new counterinsurgency strategy. The conventional wisdom in December held that sending more troops was politically impossible after the antiwar tenor of the midterm elections. It was practically impossible because the extra troops didn’t exist. Even if the troops did exist, they could not make a difference.

Four months later, the once insurmountable political opposition has been surmounted. The nonexistent troops are flowing into Iraq. And though it is still early and horrible acts of violence continue, there is substantial evidence that the new counterinsurgency strategy, backed by the infusion of new forces, is having a significant effect.

There is even more then that:

Iraqi security forces have made much progress in the past two years, transitioning from being coalition-driven to being a capable, competent force fighting for its own people, the commander of the Iraqi Assistance Group told reporters in Baghdad yesterday.

“There was a period of time when coalition forces had to urge Iraqi forces to fight. That is not the case any more,” Army Brig. Gen. Dana Pittard said at the Combined Press Information Center in the International Zone.

“They are not only capable of fighting, they want to fight for a sovereign Iraq. They are not fighting for the coalition forces. They are fighting for the Iraqi people,” he said.

Pittard said the Iraqi army’s capabilities are steadily increasing. Currently, eight of the 10 Iraqi army divisions are under Iraqi command. Six are under the command of the Iraqi Ground Forces Command, and two under the Baghdad Security Command. More than 125,000 Iraqis serve in the army.

While all 10 divisions are capable of fighting, some still lack in providing their own logistical support, Pittard said. Working through those issues will take more time, he said.

It’s working, but it takes time.  Time the Democrats do not want the US to have.

Meanwhile Al-Qaeda is still trying to produce bloodshed.  Enough of it that the networks will broadcast it all which will in turn force the Democrats to demand defeat.  That is their only hope and they know it.

Over the past month, Baghdad has seen the sectarian murders decrease significantly. Al Qaeda in Iraq, however, is attempting to destabilize the government and force an early U.S. withdrawal. Al Qaeda in Iraq has stepped up its suicide and car bomb attacks against government targets and the Shia population in an effort to reignite the sectarian violence, which has drawn Iraq to the precipice of civil war during the past year.

The Shia pilgrimage to Karbala has been a major target for al Qaeda this past week. Over 2.5 million pilgrims traveled to Karbala to mark the end of the Shia holy month (some estimates put the number as high as 9 million). Al Qaeda conduct several suicide attacks against the Shia, resulting in the deaths of over 150 pilgrims. The Iraqi government responded by increasing security along the routes, deploying elements of 1st Iraqi National Police Mechanized Brigade and the and 9th Mechanized Army Division. U.S. Units also were called in to provide security south of Baghdad.

Inside Baghdad, Iraqi and Coalition forces continue to expand their presence in the neighborhoods. There are now 23 Joint Security Stations (JSS) established throughout the city. The JSS are the patrol bases where U.S. soldiers, Iraqi police and Army units operate from within the neighborhoods in Baghdad. While about 35 to 40 JSS were planned for Baghdad initially, the concept has yielded positive results and more stations will be opened. The Iraqi government and Coalition are now planning on opening over 70 Joint Security Stations throughout Baghdad. The Sadr City JSS will be operational shortly. A joint U.S. and Iraqi force of 1,150 soldiers and police established 23 checkpoints in Sadr City last week and conducted clearing operations inside Muqtada al Sadr’s stronghold.

But there IS progress being made. 

On the other hand they, meaning the left, will never admit this fact.  So they are trying to push a cut n run bill, plain and simple.  Nothing else you can call all this micromanaging.  The LA Times, of all papers, calls Pelosi and her cohorts on this fact:

By interfering with the discretion of the commander in chief and military leaders in order to fulfill domestic political needs, Congress undermines whatever prospects remain of a successful outcome. It’s absurd for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) to try to micromanage the conflict, and the evolution of Iraqi society, with arbitrary timetables and benchmarks.

Congress should not hinder Bush’s ability to seek the best possible endgame to this very bad war. The president needs the leeway to threaten, or negotiate with, Sunnis and Shiites and Kurds, Syrians and Iranians and Turks. Congress can find many ways to express its view that U.S. involvement, certainly at this level, must not go on indefinitely, but it must not limit the president’s ability to maneuver at this critical juncture.

Bush’s wartime leadership does not inspire much confidence. But he has made adjustments to his team, and there’s little doubt that a few hundred legislators do not a capable commander in chief make. These aren’t partisan judgments — we also condemned Republican efforts to micromanage President Clinton’s conduct of military operations in the Balkans.

Message to Pelosi and the other Dimocrats….stop micromanaging this war.  If you think it’s failed then cut off the funding.  That’s it.  If not then get the hell out of the way.

Curt

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