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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (244801)	4/6/2008 6:45:08 PM
From: Hope Praytochange	Respond to of 793964

'Shining' In Iraq By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY \| Posted Friday, April 04, 2008 4:20 PM PT War And Politics: Things are going well in Iraq, a fact that Gen. David Petraeus is likely to report this week when he updates Congress on the progress there. Great news, right? Not, apparently, for some Democrats. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, expecting the worst — which for her means any good news out of Iraq — has pre-warned Petraeus not to "put a shine" on events there. "I hope we don't hear any glorification of what happened in Basra," Pelosi said Thursday, in reference to U.S. and Iraqi troops' recent successes there in rolling back extremist Shiite Cleric Muq-tada al-Sadr's militias. "Glorification?" Heaven forfend we should glorify "what happened in Basra." Our troops fought bravely, performing superbly the job assigned them by their own government — including you, Madam Speaker. But we shouldn't "glorify" them. We're not talking about a mere policy dispute here. There are lots of legitimate policy disputes, even about war. This is about the open contempt some members of one major party seem to hold for our men and women in uniform. It's one thing to oppose a war, another to more or less openly root for us to lose it. Well, we have some real bad news for Ms. Pelosi. Seems a new National Intelligence Estimate is out. And it says what she fears most: The situation in Iraq is much improved. We're winning. The U.S. has made "significant progress in Iraq since the last assessment in August," according to the Associated Press, quoting a "senior military official." That official also discussed the major progress made in healing sectarian rifts in Iraq. Recall that last August, the NIE spoke of big security gains as a result of the 30,000 troop "surge," proposed by President Bush in February 2007 and implemented by Petraeus last spring. That report and Petraeus' subsequent testimony to Congress sent Pelosi, Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid and other anti-war Democrats into a rage. Hillary Clinton even accused Petraeus of lying. With the new NIE, Clinton, Reid, Pelosi and the others will no doubt be apoplectic. They're terrified we might actually win this war. Where would that leave them? We know, we know: We need to show a little sympathy here. Anti-war Democrats just can't seem to catch a break, what with so much good news coming from Iraq. Just look at poor Rep. John Murtha, who charged eight U.S. Marines with "cold-blooded murder" after a firefight in Haditha. Last week, he heard the worst news possible: Yet another of those he rashly and obscenely accused, Lance Cpl. Stephan Tatum, had all charges against him dropped. So far, we've spent three years and nearly $50 million to try the Haditha 8. And so far, none of the charges has stuck. Given this, it's our view that if Murtha had any decency, he'd abjectly apologize. Or better yet, resign. He's guilty of a slander on the honor of these good men. But Congress' anti-war Democrats show little sense of shame, especially on national security. So the chances Murtha will apologize, let alone quit, are virtually nil. We don't want to tar all Democratic congressmen with the same brush, however. Fact is, a number of them have gone to Iraq and come back reporting — honestly — both the good and the bad. Mostly, they've told what an outstanding job our troops have done, and how much better things are now than two or three years ago. Given their party's official stance of opposition to the Iraq War, we laud them for their honesty and intellectual courage. That said, Americans might want to keep in mind Pelosi & Co.'s abysmal behavior as they gear up to vote this November. A party that can't be trusted to win a war can't be trusted to keep the peace.