According to a TIME article her views, one of which is the withdrawal of most American forces by 2008, is considered unrealistic and even Iraqi leaders see that type of plan as completely unfeasible.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who has been overseeing a crackdown on insurgents in Mosul, in a blatant snub to Pelosi, didn't even attempt to greet her on her first day on the ground, even though Mosul has been largely quiet as of late.
In an article from Associated Press, we see that Maliki did manage to eventually meet with Pelsoi and as Power Line noticed, she finally acknowledged what everyone else that has been there saw long ago.
The "surge" worked and military and political progress has been made.
The prime minister returned to Baghdad from Mosul — where he has been overseeing the crackdown — to meet with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who made a surprise visit to Iraq on Saturday.
Pelosi, a top Democratic critic of the U.S.-led war in Iraq, expressed confidence that expected provincial elections will promote national reconciliation.
She welcomed Iraq's progress in passing a budget as well as oil legislation, and a bill paving the way for the provincial elections in the fall that are expected to more equitably redistribute power among local officials.
"We're assured the elections will happen here, they will be transparent, they will be inclusive and they will take Iraq closer to the reconciliation we all want it to have," said Pelosi. She also met with Iraq's parliament speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and Gen. David Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq.
Out of everything I have read, Hot Air's Ed Morrisey put it the best when he said:
Let’s see. Iraqi Army taking control of national security — check. Maliki building support from Sunnis and Kurds — check. Congressional benchmarks for provincial elections, de-Baathification reform, oil revenue distribution, and general national reconciliation being met — check.
And Nancy Pelosi acknowledging all of these signs of the surge’s success … checkmate.
He also suspects that Pelosi's tune might change once she gets back on American soil, so he saved that AP piece in it's entirety.
Abe Greenwald from Commentary Magazine asks a few important questions about Pelosi's visit and public statements:
In February, she had said, “The purpose of the surge was to create a secure time for the government of Iraq to make the political change to bring reconciliation to Iraq. They have not done that.”
Some questions: Does this mean that the surge worked? And if so, does this mean Pelosi–gasp!–disagrees with Barack Obama, who has been against the surge from its inception? And when Nancy Pelosi returns home and speaks before the House about her experience in Iraq, will we finally see a change from the lockstep posturing that keeps the Democrats aligned with Obama on every last detail?
Highly doubtful.
The Democrats for the most part have bet heavily and invested themselves fully in their narrative of defeat and cannot, nor will they start speaking of success and victory and maintaining the progress that has been seen this year, because if they dared do so, they would lose the anti-war voters.
Votes always trump reality.
