The partisan liberal hacks in the mainstream media are having a hard time with the reality that now is Iraq. Al Qaeda's ass has been kicked out of Baghdad altogether, businesses are up and running by the hundreds, violence is at an almost all-time low, yet those who've put all their chips in the "illegal, immoral, civil war" pile, are watching their bet go down the tubes. Their credibility (as questionable as it was) is on the line, and admitting they were wrong is the last place they want to go.
Here is a perfect example of the "death by a thousand cuts"….
November 13, 2007
Are We Winning in Iraq?
Posted by Joe Klein, Time Magazine
We've seeing a fair amount of triumphalism from the usual suspects on the right about the situation on the ground in Iraq. Premature, I think–in part because of the limits of the bottom-up strategy. We may just be in the midst of a vast Iraqi exhale before the next phase of the civil war. That phase could include renewed fighting between the newly armed Sunnis (70,000 strong!) and the sketchy Iraqi Security Forces…or a full-scale armed struggle for power between the dominant Shi'ites families–the Sadrs and Hakims–in the south. It is important to remember that most of Baghdad remains, quietly, in the control of Muqtada al-Sadr. If and when US forces start pulling out of town, we will leave the capital in Sadr's control–a fact that remains intolerable for many Shi'ites and Sunnis. Furthermore, the Maliki government remains corrupt and dysfunctional. The Iraqi constitution, imposed by the US, remains untenable. The quagmire is as mired as ever…I still haven't heard anyone describe a plausible endgame.
And yet: The reduction of violence is real. The defeat of Al Qaeda in Iraq–sneezed at by some antiwar commentators–is nothing to sneeze at. The bottom-up efforts to reconcile Sunnis and Shi'ites across the scarred Anbar/Karbala provincial border, which I wrote about a few weeks ago, quite possibly reflect an Iraqi exhaustion with violence that has to be taken seriously as well. There is no question that the performance of the US military has improved markedly under the smarter, more flexible and creative leadership provided this year by General Petraeus. And the withdrawal of U.S. troops is beginning. The refusal of the antiwar movement–or some sections of it–to recognize these developments isn't helping its credibility.
That must of been hard to write.
The far-left has yet to acknowledge the realities on the ground in Iraq, and people like Joe Klein are going to be soon feeling the sting of the arrows being shot into their backs.
Al Qaeda are not the only ones losing the war. Liberals are as well, and when it comes to reluctant columns like this by Joe Klein, he'd better start making reservations for his place under the bus. It's going to get crowded under there….