The Petraeus Effect

Wall Street Journal ^ | April 8, 2008; Page A20 | Editors Opinion Journal

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

As General David Petraeus briefs Congress this week on Iraq, it's clear his surge has achieved remarkable results. The most crucial is that the U.S. can no longer be defeated militarily in Iraq, which could not be said a year ago. The question now is whether Washington will squander these gains by withdrawing so quickly that we could still lose politically.

Sixteen months after President Bush ordered the change in strategy, the surge has earned a place among the most important counteroffensives in U.S. military annals. When it began, al Qaeda dominated large swaths of central Iraq, Baghdad was a killing zone, Sunni and Shiites were heading toward civil war, and the Iraqi government was seen as a failure.

AP

A U.S. soldier on patrol in Mosul, northwest of Baghdad.

The Washington consensus – as promoted by the James Baker-Lee Hamilton Iraq Study Group – portrayed retreat as the only option. "This war is lost," declared Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in April, thus telling U.S. soldiers they were risking their lives for nothing. As late as September, Hillary Clinton had the nerve to lecture General Petraeus in a Senate hearing that "the reports that you provide to us really require the willing suspension of disbelief."

Today, al Qaeda has been cleared from all but the northern reaches of Anbar and Diyala Provinces, Iraqis feel safe enough to resume normal lives, Sunni sheikhs are working with coalition forces, and the long process of Sunni-Shiite political reconciliation has begun.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Highlighting this:

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The surge seized the offensive from the enemy so rapidly that it deserves to be studied for years as an example of effective counterinsurgency.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

But Hillary said it failed...

[unkus]

General George Patton would be proud of General Petreus. Thank you, General.

[Williams]

All true but the opening sentence saying a year ago the US could have been defeated militarily. The situation may have been chaotic and could have been more so but there was no combination of opponents in Iraq who we could not defeat.

As I just heard Jack Nicholson say in The Departed "If ya coulda, ya woulda".

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Hillary is prone to speak falsehoods...

[Proverbs 3-5]

Hillary is prone to speak falsehoods...

In the words of George Costanza: It's not a lie...if you believe it...

[phillyfanatic]

Can you imagine if the Democrats actually wanted to win this war against global Islamofascism, how easy their victory would be in Nov. ? Can you imagine if Obama , Hillary and the other appeasers would start blaming their own Party with the Durbin’s, Moore’s, Murtha’s, Pelosi’s , Reid’s for the mess in Iraq as these dopes cannot fathom that Al Queda, Iran, and other terrorists are licking their lips waiting for the Dems to surrender?

[ripley]

“can you imagine if the democrats actualy wanted to win this war against global islamofascism...”

can you imagine if the democrats were americans, believed in the u.s. constitution, were not associated with radical international socialism, while hiding behind the facade of love for the “children”?