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thedrifter
09-05-07, 08:13 AM
Heed the generals
Editorial
New York Daily News
Wednesday, September 5th 2007

Back from summer on the shore comes now Congress, in time to reflect on President Bush's surprise announcement from the combat zone that troop drawdowns are a decent prospect in the coming days, now that the war has been going better and the U.S. mission finds itself moving toward a "position of strength."

Yes, even key congressional Democrats have lately acknowledged that, well, darned if that troop surge doesn't seem to be working out after all. No, even the harshest critics cannot at this point reasonably posit that Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces, has failed to win over Iraqi hearts and minds at the local tribal levels in Anbar Province and elsewhere. It's also clear that a lot of terrorist marauders are on the run.

Nobody rosily claims the war is won. But the troop surge has brought definite, if precarious, progress. Sunni chieftains have turned on Al Qaeda, and there are signs the country's Shiites are getting fed up, too, with warring between militias. As a result, the hand-wringers on Capitol Hill have toned down the all-is-lost rhetoric.

Let us hope our lawmakers continue to be at least semirealistic in their outlook as the war debates are renewed in the days and weeks ahead. Per yesterday's Government Accountability Office report, Iraq's leaders have not used the breathing room the surge has bought them to accomplish de-Baathification, equitable distribution of energy resources and revenues, shaping up of security forces, etc.

If the tide appears to be turning elsewhere in Iraq, said turned tide has yet to become manifest in Baghdad's halls of government, where just three of 18 goals have been met. Congress would be on point in pressuring Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to assert more forceful leadership that's fair to both Shiites and Sunnis.

But with so much other real progress being made, as both Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker will shortly attest, this is no time for Congress to keep making bail-out-now demands.

It's good to observe a "position of strength" emerging in Iraq. It would be good to see the same on Capitol Hill.

Ellie