Good editorial from McCain and Lieberman today in the WSJ in which they write about how right Bush was one year ago today when he announced the surge, and how wrong those on the left are still today:
Instead, conditions in that country have been utterly transformed from those of a year ago, as a consequence of the surge. Whereas, a year ago, al Qaeda in Iraq was entrenched in Anbar province and Baghdad, now the forces of Islamist extremism are facing their single greatest and most humiliating defeat since the loss of Afghanistan in 2001. Thanks to the surge, the Sunni Arabs who once constituted the insurgency’s core of support in Iraq have been empowered to rise up against the suicide bombers and fanatics in their midst — prompting Osama bin Laden to call them “traitors.”
As al Qaeda has been beaten back, violence across the country has dropped dramatically. The number of car bombings, sectarian murders and suicide attacks has been slashed. American casualties have also fallen sharply, decreasing in each of the past four months.
These gains are thrilling but not yet permanent. Political progress has been slow. And although al Qaeda and the other extremists in Iraq have been dealt a critical blow, they will strike back at the Iraqi people and us if we give them the chance, as our generals on the ground continue to warn us.
The question we face, on the first anniversary of the surge, is no longer whether the president’s decision a year ago was the right one, or if the counterinsurgency strategy developed by Gen. Petraeus is working. It is.
The question now is where we go from here to sustain the progress we have achieved — and in particular, how soon can more of our troops come home, based on the success of the surge.
They write about the fact that five brigades will be gone by July, and there is a review pending to bring home even more. But we must take it slow. If we start to withdraw too fast and allow al-Qaeda back in then all the blood, sweat, and tears our heroes have undergone would have been for naught.
But instead of having the common sense to see this we have yahoo’s like Harry Reid saying this:
“No amount of White House spin can hide the fact that the escalation’s chief objective of political reconciliation remains unmet, Iraqis have not demonstrated any readiness to stand up and take responsibility for their own country, and 2007 was the most lethal year yet for American troops,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said today. “Democrats know Americans cannot afford to continue to pay the heavy price of this war and will continue to fight for a change of course that makes our country more secure.”
~~~He urged Bush “to work with Congress to redeploy our troops and refocus the mission in Iraq so we can more effectively fight the war on terror.”
Redeploy and refocus.
Memo to Reid, we did redeploy troops INTO Iraq a year ago, and we did refocus. Guess what, it worked. Now get out of the way and allow our fighting men and women to continue to put Iraq on solid ground.
Redeploy and refocus, give me a break.
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