Last week, when Gen. David Petraeus testified on Capitol Hill, Gen. Petraeus could report alot of positives. As a result, Sen. Carl Levin had to make a stunning admission. Here’s what Sen. Levin said:

“Regardless of one’s view of the wisdom of the policy that took us to Iraq in the first place and has kept us there over five years, we owe Gen. Petraeus and Gen. Odierno a debt of gratitude,” said Sen. Carl Levin. “And regardless how long the administration may choose to remain engaged in the strife in that country, our troops are better off with the leadership these two distinguished soldiers provide.”

John Murtha must’ve been upset when he read that quote last week. Murtha spent almost 2 years telling anyone who’d listen that there wasn’t a military solution to Iraq. Now that the Surge has worked, it’s impossible to argue that we didn’t need a military component to solving the troubles in Iraq.

Because of his arrogant predictions, Murtha should be subjected to healthy helpings of ridicule. In fact, if you couple Gen. Petraeus’ testimony with Amb. Crocker’s statement, you’d have to conclude that the Surge is succeeding on all fronts:

U.S Ambassador Crocker spoke as he visited reconstruction projects in the southern city of Najaf. “There is important progress for the Iraqi forces in confronting the Sunni and Shiite militias,” he said, speaking Arabic to reporters. “The government, the prime minister are showing a clear determination to take on extremist armed elements that challenge the government’s authority…no matter who these elements are.”

“You are not going to hear me say that Al Qaeda is defeated, but they’ve never been closer to defeat than they are now,” Crocker said.

What this means on the political front is that (a) people can’t deny that Sen. McCain was the first politician to call for this strategy and (b) McCain’s policy worked. This is important because he’ll be rightly hailed as the man who got things right in Iraq when everyone was getting it wrong.

President Bush gets low grades on Iraq because he didn’t win the insurgency, not because the American people are anti-war. I’ve said it before that they’re just opposed to losing wars.

Another politician that deserves ridicule is Sen. Amy Klobuchar. Here’s what she recently said:

“America needs a change of course in Iraq,” Klobuchar said. The measure “continued an open-ended commitment with no clear transition to Iraqi authority,” she said. “My priority is to transition to Iraq authority by beginning to bring our troops home in a responsible way.”

Why does Sen. Klobuchar think that we need to change course away from a winning strategy? That’s just plain stupid. Frankly, at this point, I’m not convinced that she’s knowledgeable enough to talk beyond that day’s talking points. It isn’t that I think she’s stupid. It’s that I think she’s that ignorant at this point.

She certainly doesn’t have a command of national security issues that Norm Coleman has.

Last summer, I was optimistic that the Iraq War could be turned into a positive for the GOP presidential nominee. It appears as though that’s certain to happen. That’s why Rep. Murtha and his MoveOn.org friends must be steaming.

Technorati Tags: Carl Levin, John Murtha, David Petraeus, Ryan Crocker, John McCain, Insurgency, AQI, National Security, Amy Klobuchar, Norm Coleman, Foreign Policy, Election 2008

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

1. The surge is clearly working.

   Hussein is still dead.

   Comment by Hat Pines — May 25, 2008 @ 10:20 am

2. And we should stay in Iraq because Hussein might come back. In fact, we better send more troops just in case.

   Comment by Liem — May 25, 2008 @ 6:05 pm