Sloggin' It Out In Iraq

Fire of Liberty

It's rather interesting the the Democratic leadership in Congress are so quick to claim that the surge has failed even when the last of the five brigades, that are needed to fully implement General Patreaus' counterinsurgency plan, just arrived in Baghdad this past week. Even more, the Dems should hold off on making such conclusions on the Patreaus offensive in Baghdad and surrounding areas until the commanders have had some time to properly assess what the complete five brigades and its Iraqi allies are achieving. I know that Congress and the American citizens are in an "on demand" mindset with regards to getting results on life as well as the fighting of war but you'd think they'd wait until September when General Petraeus returns to Congress and provides a detailed report on the state of our counterinsurgency plans in Iraq. As with such a complex counterinsurgency, the leadership in Congress should respect the fact that our commanders are not going to just turn the whole show around in a short amount of time. If the members of Congress will remember, General Patreaus and the engineers of this counterinsurgency are on record noting that the surge is something that will work but only if they have the time to do so(Close to 12 to 18 months). There are many dangerous and bad days ahead but I'm praying that our commanders and soldiers in the field prove their skeptics wrong.

*I'd say the following here, here, and here give one reason to be optimistic for the surge.