Strive for Victory not Retreat

Fire of Liberty
Now while I've been down on President Bush with regards to his stand on the abhorrent Immigration Reform bill and a lack of restraint with regards to spending(Well he's finally issuing vetoes), I've got to give him credit for being stand-fast on his commitment to finish the job in Iraq. Though it took until February for President Bush to finally accept a new counterinsurgency plan and appoint new generals to lead our soldiers into the war zone, the US is starting to achieve a modicum of success and it would be most unfortunate if the United States, based on the whims of politicians who pay too much attention to the polls and are facing an election in 2008, jumps ship on Iraq and leaves the region in the chaos of radical Islam. Someone who tends to share the same views(only in a more articulate fashion) is William Kristol who has penned a wonderful piece over at the Weekly Standard that advises President Bush not to "go wobbly" but to stay in the fight and push on to victory rather than settle for defeat. I think Kristol put it best when he noted the following:

The best strategy for the president is to hold firm. There is every reason to believe that he can survive the current calamity-Janes of the Republican party (does anyone really imagine that a veto-proof majority will form in the Senate this week or next?). This nonsense will pass, Congress will go on recess, and Petraeus will have a chance to continue to produce results--and the president and his allies will have a chance to gain political ground here at home. Why on earth pull the plug now? Why give in to an insane, irrational panic that will destroy the Bush administration and most likely sweep the Republican party to ruin? The president still has a chance to emerge from this as a visionary who could see what the left could not--but not if he gives in to them. There is no safety in the position some in the Bush administration are running towards.

Here's what I gather is a basic lesson of tactics: When you find yourself in an ambush, attack into the ambush. Don't twist and turn in the kill zone, looking for a way to retreat. Especially when the ambush is not a powerful one, and the Democrats' position (to mix military metaphors) is way overextended. The Democrats are hoping the president will break and run. They will not allow him a dignified retreat or welcome him with compromise. They will spring to finish him off completely. It doesn't matter what the president's motives are. Some of his advisers are trying to persuade him that he needs to go for a grand bargain now so as to build bipartisan support for his policies when he's gone. But the only way to do that is to hold firm now--and to counterattack. Those who try to convince him otherwise offer nothing but defeat, for the troops, for the mission, and for the president.

I just hope that President Bush stays pat with Iraq and allows General Patraeus and his generals in the field to fight the war their way rather than letting the politicians in their cozy offices up on Capitol Hill dictate the mission. Good luck Mr. President.