Defeatism isn't the Solution to Iraq

Fire of Liberty

As an American, I've still got to hang my head that the Democratic led Senate has decided to take another step forward in the passage of a pork filled, hand tying Iraq supplemental appropriation bill which is really an endorsement of our defeat in Iraq. The thing that has me scratching my head is that during the ramp-up to this legislation, the Democrats kept on squawking that the President "doesn't have a plan." Now while the Democrats might think they can dismiss President Bush's current Iraq war policy as "no plan" but they fail to notice the obvious, which is that we do have a new plan and is off to a good start in doing so. Upon being appointed to his new post, General Petraeus has implemented an new counterinsurgency policy that takes our soldiers and fellow Iraqi soldiers out of big isolated bases and putting them in some 24 joint security stations throughout various neighborhoods in Baghdad, which in turn creates a secure environment for the people thus gaining the trust of the Iraqis who in turn are able to help us in identifying the terrorists and others within the insurgency. Though we're months away from calling the Petraeus plan a complete success, one can only deduce from the initial success, as reported in The Iraq Report, here and here, things are destined to be much better Baghdad(Iraq as a whole) if they're given enough time and funding for the plan to be fully implemented.

One thing for sure is that as long as the Democrats keep on playing games with the Iraqi War funding by loading it with ghastly pork barrel spending to attract votes for the bill and implementing time-lines to please the anti-war crowd, they are making it harder for President Bush, Gen. Petraeus, our soldiers and the Iraqis from achieving victory. Even worse is the fact that by the Democrats(and Chuck Hagel(R-Neb)) voting to add time-lines for withdrawals on Iraq we are telegraphing to our enemies within Iraq and the Middle East that if you wait long enough and apply enough carnage on the mighty US then they'll eventually become divided and turn their tails under and run like hell from the region. We've seen what the Iranians are doing to the Brits now after they left Iraq and one can only guess what our enemies have in store for us come March or September 2008. Thankfully, we have a President who sees beyond the horizon--unlike the 08 looking Dems--and realizes the dangers ahead if such legislation is passed. Therefore I whole heartily support a Presidential veto that will put an end to this nonsense and start the whole process all over again. It might result in the same legislation but at least he's still focused on defending our people and our interest in the world even if people don't like it.

*Here's a good piece in the Weekly Standard which sums up the legislation.