Running From Petraeus

http://www.nysun.com/article/58015

Running From Petraeus

New York Sun Editorial
July 9, 2007

EXCERPT

Congress, without waiting for General Petraeus to send back the progress report it asked him to write when it sent him to Baghdad in January, will launch phase two of the campaign to declare defeat in the Battle of Iraq. The majority leader in the Senate, Harry Reid, the Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and their Democratic Party are maneuvering to set a date for withdrawal of troops even as General Petraeus is preparing for delivery in September two reports that will conclude that it is possible to bring enough security to Iraq for political reconciliation.

What is shaping up may be the most astounding act of perfidy in the history of the Congress. The senate voted 82 to zero to confirm General Petraeus. The Congress underwrote his surge in a bipartisan show of support for a campaign to get control of Baghdad. It put only one basic condition on the expedition, which is that General Petraeus would have to come back in the fall with a thorough report. Our troops are now in the field, fighting heroically in one of the deadliest phases of the Battle to do just what the Congress ratified — and is making real progress.

That turns out to be just what the Democrats are afraid of. One of the things we hear the general is preparing to report concerns the success of the efforts of his officers to turn many of Iraq's sheikhs in Anbar into an anti-terrorist front, with prospects for going national. He will compare the levels of violence in Iraq today to the ghastly reality of Iraq when he arrived. Violent though the battle has been these past few weeks, the level of violence is actually declining — though it's so much lower than, say, the U.S. Civil War or the European wars, or even Iraq's war with Iran, that single car bombs can sharply affect monthly casualty statistics.

One of the things that concerns General Petraeus is the morale and the stamina of his troops in the pincer between the enemy in Iraq and the politicians on the Hill. The general is expected to warn that the army and marines need more incentives, like pay raises, to signal a priority of re-enlisting and volunteering to deploy to the theater. He will also make the case, we hear, for more political support in Washington for what he is doing in Baghdad.

 

I took a similar position on this board a long time ago an was attacked unmercifully by anti-war Bush haters. I'm interested to see if you draw any fire.