January 31, 2007

Pledge Update

Nearly 31,500 people have signed The Pledge to not support any Republican senator running for re-election who votes for any resolution that amounts to less than 100-percent commitment to victory in Iraq. Hugh Hewitt has the latest on the Pledge and the various resolutions being pushed by defeatist Democrats and retreatist Republicans in the U.S. Senate who, somehow, think it's a good idea to go on record opposing the sending of reinforcements to the American troops fighting in the central combat theatre of the War on Terror.

I don't understand why some senators are pushing any sort of nonbinding resolution to express the Senate's dislike of the new military strategy in Iraq. The general leading our forces in Iraq says such a resolution will embolden our enemy. The Secretary of Defense concurs.

Senators who feel strongly about their opinion that the new military strategy won't work - or who support it - are perfectly capable of issuing a press release, and reading it into the Congressional Record, stating so. There is no need for a resolution - it won't affect policy though it will encourage the enemy. Such political grandstanding may well prolong the war and get more Americans and Iraqis killed.

Is that what the American people really want?

Boston Herald columnist Jules Crittenden has taken a look at public opinion polls and says what the majority of the American people really want in Iraq is victory. One poll found that 63 percent of Americans say they want the plan to succeed, including 79 percent of Republicans, 63 percent of independents and 51 percent of Democrats.

Conversely, that means 37 percent of Americans want the U.S. to fail in Iraq - including 40 percent of Democrats and 21 percent of Republicans. That's disgusting - no American should be rooting for defeat. But some are.

Still, the poll shows that most Americans favor American victory.

And there are signs already that the president's new military strategy may deliver, says Crittenden:

But if the majority of Americans wants us out of an intractable mess, the majority also would rather see us sort it out, if it is at all possible, and a lot of them think it is. That suggests Americans are waiting for signs of success, but presented only with reasons to despair, have agreed to do so.

The good news is, the signs of success are showing up fast. The mere suggestion of a serious crackdown has prompted its targets to run for cover. Moqtada al-Sadr is angling to get back into the political process. His Shiite militias men have hidden their weapons and are trying to act normal. Sunni insurgents are reportedly hightailing it to Diyala. Iran has signalled it wants positive engagement and negotiations, and is trying to look like a friendly neighbor to Iraq.

Those are only preliminary and temporary developments. But they represent a vote of confidence in the Bush plan from its target. The enemy has shown fear. The enemy does not want us to attack.

As Gen. Petraeus takes command and the new strategy is implemented in force, the majority of American people who long for success may begin to see it and support it.

James Baker, whose Iraq Study Group produced a series of truly bad ideas in December - a hasty withdrawal schedule and talks from a position of weakness with the very nations trying to force us out of Iraq - Tuesday said something very wise.

He told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee it made no sense to approve Gen. Petraeus’s appointment to command in Iraq while undercutting him with resolutions in defiance of his mission. And Baker, whose plan for Iraq has been largely pushed aside by the president, showed himself to be a big man with a sense of history and propriety when he told the senators they should give the president’s plan a chance to succeed.

Because if our elected leaders want to satisfy the masses and govern by poll, then they should aspire to satisfy the deep desire most Americans will state when asked. That’s the one that cuts sharply across measures of skepticism and despair. It is the poll result that says Americans want to win.