Cong. John Murtha (D-PA) just returned from Iraq to say “the surge is working.” According to Politico.com Murtha’s about face on the war effort is going to create Democrat repercussions. A top aid is reported to have said “Pelosi is going to be furious.”
The Democrat leadership’s entire strategy for the 2008 elections is built on a presumption of failure in Iraq. If you didn’t think politics was wacky enough, consider that the Democrats hope for election rewards is dependant upon our military’s failure.
Nancy Pelosi can’t be happy. Murtha is her hand-picked Chairman of the House Defense Appropriations Committee and has been one of her most outspoken deniers of progress in Iraq. As recently as ten days ago just before his latest trip to Iraq, Murtha said “We can’t win militarily”.
On the same trip with Murtha was Norm Dicks (D-WA) and the ranking Democrat on Defense Appropriations behind Murtha. “There is a sense of normalcy you didn’t see before,” Dicks told his home state Seattle Times, “In that sense, the surge is being successful.” Dicks said the congressional delegation impressed upon the Iraqi government officials that along with improved security they also needed to make political strides, too. “But I felt kinda embarrassed telling the Iraqis they had to get their act together and pass legislation when we can’t do it back here,” he said. Pelosi won’t be very thrilled to hear that indictment of her ineffectiveness, either.
In the recent issue of The Weekly Standard, Noemie Emery documented the litany of Democrat leadership proclamations over the last year that demonstrates the investment in defeat lead by Pelosi and Reid, and their unwillingness to accept evidence of our troop’s success. As Emery wrote, “In the course of the past year, they (Democrats) have gone from attacking a plan that had not been effective to attacking one that hadn’t been tried yet, to attacking one that exceeded all expectations.”
From Harry Reid’s “this war is lost” and Pelosi’s “The escalation (Surge) has failed to produce the intended results” to Clinton’s September rebuke of Gen. Petraeus (”The reports that you provide to us really require the willing suspension of disbelief”), the Democrats have invested their future in failure by America’s finest.
Near the end of July, reports started to come in from Iraq – most notably Anbar Province, and later Baghdad — of improved security as a result of the efforts of the Surge and cooperation by the Iraqis. According to Emery, the sustained positive assessments continuing to pour in from multiple sources has requiring a change of strategy by the Democrats of “putting the worst face on good news.”
Throughout 2007 the Democrats on Capitol Hill have failed to fund Bush’s request for the troop’s efforts. Declaring defeat, they have tried to tie additional funding to a predetermined date of withdrawal and other attempts to neuter Bush and our military’s efforts. With a united front singing of defeat from the same hymnal, Pelosi and Reid made the case that they weren’t going to fund a failed or failing strategy. Now with the top two Democrat Defense Appropriators in the House, Murtha and Dix, confirming success in the field… Well, those Democrats might just have to find another song to sing.
Maybe they could try “God Bless America.”