A Perspective From Someone Who Has Been There

Tired of listening to main-stream bench-warmers talk about the "situation in Iraq?" Tired of sissy columnists describing the "disaster" from their computer screen in New York or L.A.?

Courtesy of Power Line, Karl Zinsmeister just returned from his third tour in Iraq and gives a glimpse at the real "situation in Iraq."

What the establishment media covering Iraq have utterly failed to make clear today is this central reality: With the exception of periodic flare-ups in isolated corners, our struggle in Iraq as warfare is over. Egregious acts of terror will continue—in Iraq as in many other parts of the world. But there is now no chance whatever of the U.S. losing this critical guerilla war.

Contrary to the impression given by most newspaper headlines, the United States has won the day in Iraq. In 2004, our military fought fierce battles in Najaf, Fallujah, and Sadr City. Many thousands of terrorists were killed, with comparatively little collateral damage. As examples of the very hardest sorts of urban combat, these will go down in history as smashing U.S. victories.

This is undoubtedly why the left has ramped up the rhetoric in the last few months. In their myopic view, a victory in Iraq is a victory for Republicans, which, besides being shameful, is also a self-fulfilling prophecy. It is they who gambled everything on the notion that we would lose in Iraq and now must either admit they were wrong or attempt a desperate undermining of the war, in essence trying to snatch defeat form the jaws of victory.

Hence you have Durbin, Biden, Pelosi, et al now engaged in an attempt to divert attention by besmirching the military and attacking Bush. What is truly sad about the situation is that it is based on that gamble, rather than an honest assessment of the war. Thus, it is a situation created of their own pessimism that they must now play out to protect their power in Washington.

Could there be anything more cynical than politicians working directly against their own country and military simply to protect their own ass?

Then again, Pseudo-Polymath theorizes that the left simply doesn't know what's going on.

Suppose our Administration knows all this ... why the silence? What does it serve them to not trumpet this point of view? Is it that they feel they cannot overwhelm the negative impression the MSM gives ... or is it a strategic ploy, giving the opposition the opportunity to keep digging that anti-American/military hole just a little deeper for themselves?

Who knows, maybe he is right. Maybe the Democrats are just stupid.