The Surge Succedes

Writing at The American Thinker, J.R. Dunn says of the benefits of Petreaus-Crocker hearings is the way they've cleared up the poisonous defeatism and futility that settled over the topic of Iraq since the beginning of this year.

Much of this was produced by MoveOn, the media, and advantage-hunting Democratic pols, but it was also implicit in a lot of commentary from the war's supporters as well. (e.g., the habit of ending each announcement of good news with some line such as, "of course, there's a long way to go" or "we've still got a hard road ahead". This solecism is common among everyone from W on down, and amounts to jabbing a nail in your own tire.)

Dunn continues, saying the danger with chronic pessimism is that it often acts as self-fulfilling prophecy. Where optimism, be it justified or not, may carry you though despite the facts of a situation, an overly bleak assessment by its very nature induces hesitation, second thoughts, and timidity. The war's opponents, both political and journalistic are well aware of this.

The critics of surge looked at it as an end-game, something of a last-ditch effort. No one ever considered that it might represent a new beginning. The ball is now in our court. We have one more chance to shake the Middle East out of its medievalism into something more acceptable to 21st century global civilization.

Read it.