General Petraeus was confirmed, unanimously 81-0, (that link is to the roll call vote) and given the job of heading up a new counterinsurgency strategy in iraq back in February and he received his full compliment of troops a approximately two months ago.
Since then, he and our troops have seen tremendous military success in places like Anbar Province which was once an al-Qaeda stronghold and just last summer was given up as lost, is now flourishing and life is returning to normal after our troops, led by General Pestraeus and the local population rose up and drove al-Qaeda elements out.
In the Generals own words from an interview given to The Australian:
**Dramatic reduction of sectarian killings.
**Drop in the number of roadside bombings.
**Killing or capturing of al-Qaeda fighters, causing the terrorist group to lose influence with local Sunnis.
**75 per cent reduction in religious and ethnic killings since last year.
**Doubling in the seizure of insurgents' weapons caches between January and August.
**US forces are pursuers instead of defenders.
**Religious-related deaths would be down to a quarter of what they were last December by the end of August.
He also acknowledges the challenges that still face us in Iraq, but his words are also accompanied by the reports from Democratic leaders that have returned from Iraq, In August and have reported the same thing, that progress has been amazing and violence is down and that the surge is working.
Keith Ellison and Jerry McNerney are two of those politicians, but the most amazing turn araound has been from Brian Baird, a war critic that voted against every action in Iraq since the beginning of the war. Brian Baird returned from Iraq stating that "The Troops have earned more time" and has also stated "It could well cost me the next election,"That's alright.".
"The easiest thing in the world would have been to go over there...and just say, using partisan rhetoric, 'Get out now,'" he said.
As the evening wore on, Baird repeatedly insisted that Iraq would descend into worse chaos if the U.S. withdrew precipitously, with Iran gaining greater influence. "I think the probability is 95 percent if we withdraw prematurely, in our hearts we will live to regret it," he said.
Baird said industries are starting to reopen and things are starting to get better. "We're putting people back to work and that is good news," he said.
"I am truly impressed by Brian's willingness to stand here and take it gracefully," said Joy Overstreet, a Vancouver writer, as the meeting passed the two-hour mark. But she said she would consider voting out the congressmen next year if there is a "viable alternative."
"It could well cost me the next election," Baird said at the end of the meeting. "That's alright."
There were, however, some hints that Baird's new stance also had attracted some people. Bill Turlay, a Vancouver Republican and Navy veteran, said he hadn't voted for Baird before. But he said he was impressed by Baird's new stance on Iraq and said, "I'm going to seriously consider him next year."
For his honesty he has been targeted by MoveOn.org, attacking him because instead of lying, he came back and told the truth, changing an opinion that he has held for 6 years because of the progress he had seen in Iraq when he went there.
Last March, Rep. Baird voted with the Democrats to force Bush to bring troops home. Now he says he'll oppose timelines to bring our troops home from the unwinnable civil war in Iraq. We've got a new ad challenging Rep. Baird on his new support for the Iraq War.
Now we see that Democratic politicians, invested in defeat and failure are trying to discredit General Petraeus because he did the unthinkable in their eyes, he started to demand and get progress in Iraq and he started succeeding where the Democratic politicians only wanted him to fail.
Now, remember what I wrote above:
General Petraeus was confirmed, unanimously 81-0, (that link is to the roll call vote) and given the job of heading up a new counterinsurgency strategy in iraq back in February and he received his full compliment of troops a approximately two months ago.
Also remember and look for yourself, that Harry "Baghdad" Reid was one of those 81 unanimous votes in favor of sending General Petreus to lead the new strategy which included the surge in Iraq.
In April, before the full number of troops to be involved in the surge had arrived, Harry Reid made the statement that the surge was accomplishing nothing and Iraq was lost.
The war in Iraq "is lost" and a US troop surge is failing to bring peace to the country, the leader of the Democratic majority in the US Congress, Harry Reid, said Thursday.
"I believe ... that this war is lost, and this surge is not accomplishing anything, as is shown by the extreme violence in Iraq this week," Reid told journalists.
Then after the full compliment of troops did arrive and the new strategies were being implemented and started seeing progress, as admitted by multiple Democratic politicians that went to Iraq and saw this for themselves, Baghdad Reid tried to move the goalposts from his earlier gaffe of the "surge is accomplishing nothing" to the "political progress isn't happening".
Well, then al-Maliki started working behind the scenes, went and courted the Sunnis and the Sunnis ended their boycott and rejoined the parliament.
Once again, Reid has opened his big mouth too soon and showed that he was out of touch with conditions on the ground in Iraq.
NOW, the new "gameplan" is to discredit General Petraeus as we have seen by more recent comments from, you got it...HARRY REID again.
Democratic leaders are not waiting to hear the general's testimony Monday before the House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs Committee.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said in his party's weekly radio address today that he expects the Petraeus report to be nothing more than the Bush administration's selective take on the surge.
Nancy Pelosi also joined in on the "lets give up my credibility" game by quoting newspaper sources to counter the reports from the commander on the ground in Iraq.
She will quote from papers and ignore the experts?
This echoes the statements from the Democratic politicians invested in defeat and are unable to reconcile the progress being made in Iraq with their political agenda of declaring defeat.
Lets take a look at credibility here.
Reid said the surge was accomplishing noting (follow the links above) before the surge even has all the troops on the ground.
Reid claimed no political progress was being made as al-Maliki was making him into a liar by making tremendous leaps on the political front.
Pelosi quotes newspaper and ignore the conditions on the ground as reported by those actually there.
Reid and Pelosi's credibility on Iraq is at zero, so lets take a look at General Petraeus and his record.
General David H. Petraeus assumed command of the Multi-National Force-Iraq on February 10th, 2007, following his assignment as the Commanding General, U.S. Army Combined Arms Center and Fort Leavenworth. Prior to assuming command at Ft. Leavenworth, he was the first commander of the Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq, which he led from June 2004 to September 2005, and the NATO Training Mission- Iraq, which he commanded from October 2004 to September 2005. That deployment to Iraq followed his command of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), during which he led the “Screaming Eagles” in combat throughout the first year of Operation Iraqi Freedom. His command of the 101st followed a year deployed on Operation Joint Forge in Bosnia, where he was the Assistant Chief of Staff for Operations of the NATO Stabilization Force and the Deputy Commander of the US Joint Interagency Counter-Terrorism Task Force-Bosnia. Prior to his tour in Bosnia, he spent two years at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, serving first as the Assistant Division Commander for Operations of the 82nd Airborne Division and then as the Chief of Staff of XVIII Airborne Corps.
General Petraeus was commissioned in the Infantry upon graduation from the United States Military Academy in 1974. He has held leadership positions in airborne, mechanized, and air assault infantry units in Europe and the United States, including command of a battalion in the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) and a brigade in the 82nd Airborne Division. In addition, he has held a number of staff assignments: Aide to the Chief of Staff of the Army; battalion, brigade, and division operations officer; Military Assistant to the Supreme Allied Commander - Europe; Chief of Operations of the United Nations Force in Haiti; and Executive Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
General Petraeus was the General George C. Marshall Award winner as the top graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College Class of 1983. He subsequently earned MPA and Ph.D. degrees in international relations from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, and later served as an Assistant Professor of International Relations at the US Military Academy. He also completed a fellowship at Georgetown University.
Awards and decorations earned by General Petraeus include the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, two awards of the Distinguished Service Medal, two awards of the Defense Superior Service Medal, four awards of the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star Medal for valor, the State Department Superior Honor Award, the NATO Meritorious Service Medal, and the Gold Award of the Iraqi Order of the Date Palm. He is a Master Parachutist and is Air Assault and Ranger qualified. He has also earned the Combat Action Badge and French, British, and German Jump Wings. In 2005 he was recognized by the U.S. News and World Report as one of America’s 25 Best Leaders.
Lets compare. What MPA and Ph.d's has Reid earned? hmmmmmm?
What awards has Reid earned?
Which of these two men have proven, in word and action, that they are on the side of America and will risk life and limb for their country?
Reid? NOPE. Pelosi? NOPE. Petraeus? YES.
When speaking of credibility, General Petraeus has more credibility, more honor, more valor and more courage than Harry Reid or Nancy Pelosi could hope to achieve in their lifetimes and by trying to discredit General Petraeus for no other reason that the good general is seeing progress where Reid and Pelosi were praying for failure, shows yet another character flaw in Reid and Pelosi.
Even more amazing is that leaders from other countries can recognize General Petraeus and our troops progress and success, when the Democratic members of our own Congress and Senate cannot:
Dr. Brendan Nelson, the Australian Defense Minister had this to say:
Dr Nelson, who went to Afghanistan and Iraq this week and is now in Washington, said General Petraeus had presented a detailed presentation on security inside the country.
"We finished our meeting with a very clear picture of his thinking of the assessment of the security situation, not just in Baghdad but also in the south and the work being done by us and the British," he said.
"No one should underestimate the importance to what is happening in Iraq of our contribution and the significance of it to the Americans and the Iraqis themselves.
"We will wait until we see the President's response to the report and we will shape our forward planning around that response.
"I think it is fair to say that we will continue to look for increased opportunities for training."
The Defence Minister said Australian forces were highly regarded as trainers and whenever he asked the Iraqis to nominate what they wanted they "always said training".
"Our support for continuing support and involvement in Iraq is a minority position but we have a moral responsibility to these people to see this job through," Dr Nelson said.
By trying to discredit General Petraeus because the General dared to accomplish what many did not believe could be accomplished, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi has managed to further discredit our own Democratic politicians in Washington, namely themselves, at the same time, attacking their own politicians that dared return from Iraq with news or progress.
Ambassador Ryan Crocker will join Gen. David Petraeus, the top commander in Iraq, in recommending that no significant changes be made to Bush's war strategy in order to avoid jeopardizing the limited progress achieved from the troop surge.
The statements and testimony will also be released to the public so that the discredited Democrats cannot "spin" and distort the live testimony that General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker will give as well as interviews with the media.
The American people will get to hear the two of them instead of the lies that Reid and Pelosi will try to tell about the testimony.
[Update]
Of course the left is losing thier minds that the public will hear the truth from Petraues instead of the democratic "spin"[End Update]
On a stopover in Hawaii yesterday on his way back from Australia, Bush said, "There's no question there's still hard work to do. But my resolve is as strong as it has ever been."
The surge and the progress will continue. General Petraeus has stated that if the progress continues as he has been seeing it, we will be able to draw down some of the troops to before surge levels and Congress and the Senate would do well to start backing the good General because they are at the lowest approval ratings in the history of Gallup polling those numbers, but they can and WILL drop farther down if they continue to bet and actively work to undermine General Petraeus and our troops in a time of war.
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