Posted on 12/03/2007 9:34:47 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
The San Francisco Chronicle, newspaper of the liberal elite from the West Coast capitol of the far left, is making some astonishing observations today regarding Iraq:
Is the troop surge in Iraq working?
If it is, the battleground at home could shift in ways unthinkable just two months ago: President Bush could be off the ropes and Republicans back on offense. The Democratic Congress and presidential candidates could lose their footing on their biggest issue. And U.S. troop commitments and war funding could be set on a higher, more permanent trajectory.
…
There is no question that violence in Iraq has ebbed since the troop surge announced by Bush in January reached its full capacity in June with about 162,000 troops. Even Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., chairman of the House subcommittee that controls defense spending, a key ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, and a leading Democratic opponent of the war, recently returned from Iraq saying, “I think the surge is working.”
Violence has receded to the levels of January 2006, before the bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra set off a sectarian civil war between Shiites and Sunni. By many accounts, al Qaeda in Iraq has been hammered. Sunni tribes, many of them former insurgents, have turned against al Qaeda in Iraq in what is called the Sunni awakening.
(Excerpt) Read more at strata-sphere.com ...
****************************EXCERPT*****************************
Already there seems to be a shift in public perception. A Pew poll last month found that nearly half of the public now believes the U.S. military effort is going well "for the first time in a long time," up from a third in June. Still, the 54 percent majority who believe the troops should come home has not budged.
Leading Iraq experts who have advised government officials are divided about the consequences of the troop surge. Political reconciliation among Iraqi factions, always the strategic aim of the decision last January to increase U.S. combat troops, is not in sight.
Some analysts believe that the United States is merely helping warring factions arm themselves during a lull in violence that will explode again once the surge ends as planned by summer - around the time Democrats and Republicans hold their national party conventions. Others say Iraq is on the brink of a long-sought cease-fire that will allow the U.S. military to serve as a classic peacekeeping force stabilizing Iraq and the region.
There is no question that violence in Iraq has ebbed since the troop surge announced by Bush in January reached its full capacity in June with about 162,000 troops. Even Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., chairman of the House subcommittee that controls defense spending, a key ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, and a leading Democratic opponent of the war, recently returned from Iraq saying, "I think the surge is working."
Meanwhile we have this:
Ahmadinejad offers Gulf Arab states security pact ( Will they accept?)
Iraq ping.
I agree. See my tag line.
I think Time is like the Nobel Prize commitee, "travesty" is not a show stopper. I agree it should be General Petraeus but it's a Presidential political year, look for Time's Dem favorite.
The goalposts will move once again, and they will find other ways to denigrate the mission and our warriors. That’s what leftists do.
No doubt.
As we discussed many times before, it is impossible to hide the news of success and victory no matter how hard liberals and their media try to hide it.
ALL WE ARE SAYING, IS GIVE VICTORY A CHANCE,,,, ALL WE ARE SAYING IS GIVE VICTORY A CHANCE.
Sure they will look for a Dem favorite, but there is no one to pick. French President Nicolas Sarkozy won't do. Maybe Hugo Chavez? Might be they'll have to resort to one of those bogus groups, like Whistleblowers, in which case it would need be Illegal Immigrants.
Related article:
*************Intro Excerpt *****************
[from the December 17, 2007 issue]
Any decline in violence in Iraq is welcome. But the relative quiet that reigns in Baghdad does not mean that the troop surge has been successful. This elementary point--which even some antiwar Democrats hesitate to make--now routinely elicits accusations of "defeatism" and worse from Republicans and their water carriers in the media. Yet it is the war party's triumphalism that deserves to be met with outrage. Did they think no one would notice that they have rewritten the script? The surge was supposed to improve security as a means to an end; the end was to find a political solution for Iraq's internal conflicts. In President Bush's own words, "Victory in Iraq will bring something new in the Arab world--a functioning democracy that polices its territory, upholds the rule of law, respects fundamental human liberties and answers to its people.
Weather report from hell: freezing cold today...
This AM CNN announced an astonishing turn around in Iraq....just about one month late on the reporting. Then they commenced to interveiw Murtha and his rehearshed “small window of opportunity”. Yuk!
Jack Murtha says, "Oops! I crapped my pants."
"Full capacity"? You mean we con't find room for just one more company, brigade, or battalion?
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