One blade-sharp officer, Lt. Col. Doug Ollivant, the 1st Cavalry Division's G-5 Plans officer, even proposes that "our counterinsurgency fight is largely won," with the fading of the Sunni insurgency and the gutting of al Qaeda in Iraq.His article is sober --his word-- about the politics involved, but he notes the following improvements:
* Al Qaeda, America's enemy, has suffered a catastrophic strategic defeat and a humiliation - rejected by its own kind - that will resound in the Muslim world.
* That hotbed of insurgency, Anbar Province, has largely come over to our side.
* The surge strategy is bringing peaceful conditions to ever more Iraqi neighborhoods - and street-level Iraqis are grateful. They don't want us to leave.
* Despite Iran's growing involvement, we've limited Tehran's effectiveness - thus far.
And this is what I would argue to the Dems, whose talking points have shifted from, "the war is lost" to "Ok, sure, the war is won, but the political war is lost."
Genuine support of our troops and their mission would be the greatest possible "combat multiplier." Instead, the campaign bellowing back home means that even our most-steadfast Iraqi partners feel compelled to prepare for two alternative futures - one if we stay, and another if we abandon them.
That doesn't result in a fully cohesive effort. Our allies in Iraq are well aware of what happened in Vietnam in 1975, when we last abandoned those who put their faith in us.
