Blunt truth about the surge

In spite of the surge’s palpable success, anti-war legislators are determined to bring the troops home, the mission incomplete.

In a scathing op.ed. for yesterday’s Washington Times, Congressman Roy Blunt takes anti-war legislators to task for their latest underhanded attempt to precipitate America’s defeat in Iraq.

In the coming weeks, Rep. Blunt explains, they will try to execute a "slow-bleed strategy for Iraq" by bringing to the floor an "emergency" funding measure loaded with reporting requirements on matters of basic operational authority.   If these requirements are not met, U.S. troops could be forced to begin withdrawing as early as June.   (Recognizing that their moderate colleagues would be reluctant to support such a proposal, the anti-war proponents of this plan have attached a tremendous amount of pork spending to influence votes.)

"House…leaders," the congressman continues, "want to micromanage an active military engagement being fought on an ever-shifting landscape of sand, soil and public opinion 6,000 miles from our shores. Or, just maybe, they don’t want anyone to win a war that some of them no longer want to fight."

Such defeatism is being advanced in the halls of Congress even as accounts from Iraq continue to signal that the surge is succeeding.   In addition to earlier depictions of noticeable progress from Iraqi citizens, the Associated Press reported Wednesday that, since the imposition of new security measures in Baghdad, "the once frequent sound of weapons has been reduced to episodic, and downtown shoppers have returned to outdoor markets."  

Bomb deaths in the capital, in fact, are down by 30 percent, and the rate of killings of U.S. troops has declined by 60 percent.   As one unidentified Iraqi told the AP, "people are very optimistic because they sense a development. The level of sectarian violence in streets and areas has decreased."   Remarkably, all this has been accomplished even though only two of the five U.S. brigades earmarked for the mission have hit the streets.

If legislators are unwilling to actively support the consolidation of Iraq’s liberation, it is at the very least incumbent upon them not to stand in the way of those who are successfully waging this war against terror.