The Democrats are invested in U.S. defeat.

Good news in the war on the terrorists is good news for the U.S., but bad news for the Democrats.

A pox on both our houses if we allow Iraq to be turned into a purely political endeavor in search of advantage.

Where is the political solution?

Where is the, "we'll stand down when they stand up"?

4 1/2 years and counting...

I can see the right clinging to at last some good news. If it is so. There are still many many many things that have to go right before there is an end to this. It could be a little knee jerk though....what I know of these so called experts, it may not be the case.

Even the Rednek Dallas papers are stating to wake up.

NEW YORK In recent weeks, a growing number of U.S. newspapers have started calling for the beginning of a U.S. withdrawal in Iraq. Now a leading supporter of President Bush, and the war, has come out for a major change in course.

An editorial in The Dallas Morning News, while failing to back what it calls a "total withdrawal," demands "Plan B in Iraq." It includes a pullback of all U.S. forces to near the borders of Iraq.

The Belo paper in Bush's native Texas has long been a supporter of the president and admits in the editorial that it also backed the war in 2003, believing his claims about WMD. But now it adds:

"Americans had reasonable expectations that an invasion of such magnitude would include a viable, well-orchestrated postwar plan to bring stability and democracy to Iraq.

Just tell us that we are making a "massive" difference in that country, but give us a timetable for withdrawals. Someone has to have an idea how long it will take to get the Iraqi's independant of our troops. I would just love to know when I am going to see my little brother again.

Oh good grief. People in Washington must think that most Americans were born yesterday.

Everyone knows that our super-duper top commander guy, Petraus is going to say in Sept. that the 'surge' is working, and that we need to give it time, blah, blah, blah. It will give political cover to the Repubs and some chicken little Dems. Meanwhile, nothing of any consequence will happen in Iraq. It will still be a disaster, costing more money and lives every single day we stay. The whole point of this stupid exercise is to provide cover to Shrubby and his gang of criminals to hand this off to the incoming Democratic president and then blame them for 'losing Iraq'.

The script is already written.

If the Iraqis are ready to step up to the plate, let's see them do it.

Please, please prove this Democrat wrong. Let's see the Iraqi Government step up so we can stand down.

It is 4 1/2 years and counting...

I am no Republican but isn't he basically saying that the Democrats are hoping for failure in Iraq? I agree that Bush and his posse have really just been awful from the start in running this war, but if their really is progress as the NY TImes has reported then why would any AMERICAN root for failure in Iraq.

Sad to see so many members of the Democratic party actually pulling for America's military forces to fail in Iraq. Time to get new leadership other than Pelosi and Reid, people who can see good news for the country though maybe not good news for the political fortunes of Democrats.

The white flag concession is alive and well and will be ready for the Democratic national convention .

Democrats certainly have not significantly changed the direction of the war; as much as those who voted them in might have liked. However, I do think that due to their incessant often self serving political party line needs vying with those of Republicans combined with Bush's need to finally turn to them for more funding have dissuaded the president form continuing to look at Iraq in terms of vague parameters and narrow strategy; which left the military without a plan post invasion for the insurgency and occupation, and caused units to try different approaches at times canceling out their efforts and hard earned ground in the long run. I think the results we're looking for now are within the parameter of what needs to happen; political solution, reconciliation steps at the very least, and security, Iraqi military and police. Patreause was one of the generals who took the issues being faced by his units noting the importance of reaching out to localities and making them safer, and it seems that his flare ups at al-Maliki now show he knows what is riding on the line; lives lost and counting. Should he come back in September with objectively reasonable, some show of progress in the objectives, and candid about what the mistakes were/are and what is being done to or can or can't be done to alter the situation. I don't know why the Democrats would refuse to accept it, and continue to build in the right direction. I know they are pretty set on a timetable, but should the results prove favorable they should consider a variation of alternatives; be constructive and less motivated by political ends. Especially, when they know that they won't be able to pass a bill under those favorable circumstances by the Republicans, and we all know the idea of defunding the war is as good as taboo for Congress; due to the Presidential election. I guess we will see in September.

Generals will say what their Commander in Chief has said he wants to hear, they follow orders. And generals are not our elected leaders to make war policy, the president is. So every time Bush says to wait for a general to tell us what we should do, he needs to be handed a copy of the Constitution. If he's not fit to make these decisions, he shouldn't be in office.

Even the Rednek Dallas papers are stating to wake up.

NEW YORK In recent weeks, a growing number of U.S. newspapers have started calling for the beginning of a U.S. withdrawal in Iraq. Now a leading supporter of President Bush, and the war, has come out for a major change in course.

An editorial in The Dallas Morning News, while failing to back what it calls a "total withdrawal," demands "Plan B in Iraq." It includes a pullback of all U.S. forces to near the borders of Iraq.

The Belo paper in Bush's native Texas has long been a supporter of the president and admits in the editorial that it also backed the war in 2003, believing his claims about WMD. But now it adds:

"Americans had reasonable expectations that an invasion of such magnitude would include a viable, well-orchestrated postwar plan to bring stability and democracy to Iraq.

There's no "good news" coming from Iraq but what is coming from the White House is more propaganda on Iraq, the same kind of propaganda that they used to sell the little Wingnuts like RNC Bruce on Saddam having WMD's in 2003 is being used to keep us there.

W. and Cheney have a vested interest in keeping this civil war in Iraq going until Jan 09.

I like watching dead bodies on TV. Stay the course. The surge is working!!

Weinerdog - seems like a fitting moniker. And your alternative solution is...what? Walk away? The left has so committed itself to defeat in Iraq that it can not possibly embrace positive news - even when it comes through the New York Times by two of the left's own harshest critics. Yes, the left has already written the script - but facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. God forbid you wait for the actual report in September before you damn it.

If that success leads to us getting the h out, great. It will be a tremendous stroke of good luck.

I think it may fall short of that, however.

The white flag concession is alive and well and will be ready for the Democratic national convention .

Posted by: Sequoia | July 31, 2007 12:43 PM

What a vile comment.

In answer to the 25%er:

Yes. The definition of idiocy is doing the same thing day after day and expecting different results.

Shorter Republic plan: Clap louder everyone!

And those two clowns from Brookings that everyone was reporting on yesterday?

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/?last_story=/opinion/greenwald/2007/07/31/ohanlon/

Wienerdog, your comments make no sense:
1. US troop fatalities are at the lowest in 8 months. That's a number, not propaganda.
2. The US is not doing the same thing over and over again; hence the "surge" strategy, which is apparently working... much to Democrats' chagrin.

Sheesh.

One commenter said:
"progress as the NY TImes has reported"

The New York Times didn't "report" progress. This whole conversation began on the OP-
Ed page, NOT the news pages. The OP-Ed page is about OPINION not NEWS.

The authors of this propaganda piece spent 8 whole days in the GREEN ZONE. How do they know ANYTHING? What makes them "experts?"

Ah, the Loony Left is unfortunately alive, but as usual, not well.

One time they say Bush doesn't listen to the generals, the folks on the ground. Then they say, don't listen to the generals because generals don't set foreign policy. Then they say the generals just say what Bush wants them to say.
From Harry Reid's comments that the war is lost to the Loony Left's mantra that we can't win, the Left is solidly tucked in the U.S. must lose at all costs mode.

Again...weinerdog...what would you do other than give up to win this battle - assuming you're not one of those who thinks we staged 9/11? Nobody on the left has an alternative plan except pull out. How does that make us stronger and safer? Quitting is not a solution. Neither is clapping louder.

the Left is solidly tucked in the U.S. must lose at all costs mode.

Posted by: John D | July 31, 2007 2:24 PM

Pretty repulsive comment there john. But coming from a blind follower, keyboard warrior I shouldn't expect anything relevant or even intelligent.

Posted by John D July 31, 2007 2:24 PM

John D, you need to clap louder, the Troops in Iraq can't hear you.

OK, 2 can play:

proudamerican, you are a traitor. You want American troops to die in Iraq so that you can fill up your gas guzzler. You make me sick. If you're not posting from Iraq, I don't care what chickenhawks like you think. Way to raise the discourse.

The escalation (2+year surge) is working; the escalation (2+year surge) is working----sounds more and more like Viet Nam all the time.
Knowledge of history and intelligence should be tested before one can be made a President.

Weinerdog - see - this is why I hate this stuff. I asked you what you would do and your response is to call me a gas guzzling traitor. There is nothing more to say; your response confirms that those of us on the right are...well, right. Gotta go - got better things to do. Bye.

If General Patraeus is successful what are you Dems going to do when they come for you bad boys, bad boys seems like it's words to a song.If you own defeat you can't share in victory. I see Dougie Zook getting nervous--even the Brookings Institute is beginning to wonder if the far left have been swindling us with all these Cindy Sheehan peace rants. What a difference a year makes last year she was in Crawford now she's in California running against Pelosi. Whoops. Maybe America has a future after all without your Vietnam 60's nostalgia.By the way, W served in the National Guard for 2 years not 90 days like Al Gore.Jerry White, Springfield, IL

This is nonsense.

Who DOESN'T believe Gen. Petraeus is going to give a glowing report.

Heck, I can write the report for you right here:

"The surge has worked. The insurgents have dropped their weapons and have agreed to participate in a new government."

That's not going to surprise anyone but the most naive of you.

What really matters is whether there's going to be honest revenue sharing and if the government officials will start to prosecute those who keep stealing from Iraq's treasury.

Once the surge is over, the rats will resurface.

Indeed, if the surge has worked, then it's time to bring the troops home. Or is the surge going to have to last longer... and if so, how much longer? And what do we expect to see at the end of the surge?

To many questions, only one answer: Iraqis have to want to stay together as Iraqis.

Hey look at all the progress that's being made on a political solution in Iraq. The Iraqi Parliament is already into it's third round of Pina Coladas during their month lonfg recess while our soldiers continue to die. Who isn't encourage by progress like that!

It doesn't matter what the Generals say about military progress. The only progress that matters is the progress the Iraqis are making on becoming a stable, self sufficient government. Not only is no progress being made in that direction, things are actually worsening. There are fewer Iraqi securoty forces active now than there were in January, but training of those forces has slowed as American troops have been icreasingly focused on combat.

Shorter proudamerican:

Waaah! The mean Liberal hit back.

Interesting I thought that the problem wasn't numbers or recruits willing to shed sectarian loyalties as much as logistics. It seems that had slowed their pace not only in getting the recruits to practice and gain the experience (that the disbanded army could have helped with), but the logistics aren't automatic and more of a bureaucratic waiting game. I think that arming them has long stalled and been complained in Iraq about.

7/31/07
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Pentagon cannot fully account for $19.2 billion worth of equipment provided to Iraqi security forces, government auditors said Tuesday.

The finding by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, comes a few days after the Pentagon acknowledged that the U.S. and its allies have delivered a little more than a third of the equipment in the pipeline for the Iraqi Army and less than half of what is destined for the Iraqi police.

Baghdad officials have long complained that the lack of equipment has made it difficult to train and equip Iraqi forces.

Since the program's beginning, the GAO found, consistent records confirming the date of issue, what type of equipment was received, and by what Iraqi unit were not kept. Before December 2005, no centralized records were kept. While the situation started improving in 2006, problems still exist, the GAO said.

"GAO's review of the January 2007 property books found continuing problems with missing and incomplete records," the report said.

The GAO found a discrepancy of at least 190,000 weapons between the data reported by the unit charged with implementing the program to train and equip Iraqi forces and the property books where such details are supposed to be kept.

The GAO says the Defense Department and components of the Multinational Force-Iraq were responsible.

In addition to the $19.2 billion used, the Defense Department recently requested another $2 billion for the program...."

" WASHINGTON (AP) -- Iraq's archaic system for supplying and sustaining its troops on the battlefield is a major hurdle in the U.S. effort to fashion an independent Iraqi fighting force, according to a top American military commander.

Marine Corps Maj. Gen. W.E. Gaskin said there has been substantial progress in Iraq's ability to recruit and train its military. But those positive steps have not been matched by badly needed improvements to the country's outdated network for maintaining and repairing critical war-fighting gear..."

Jerry White,

Where's the political solution?

We've been fed reports of success in Iraq since we started this war. It'd be great if we're really making good progress, but pardon me if I don't get all excited and break out the "mission accomplished" banner just yet. I'll be more convinced things are getting better when we start bringing our troops home.

Bush got us into Iraq but the Dems kept us there .
Iraq war is lost (By lost I mean our military has done all it could) .
Iraqs police dept is useless and their gvmt is as corrupt as organized crime.

The Dems are in power in BOTH houses .
Which is it Dems do we leave as you promised the voters or stay in that sewer?