Hope in Iraq

Here are some pull quotes from the AP story linked below:

"I've never been more optimistic than I am right now with the progress we've made in Iraq. The only people who are going to win this counterinsurgency project are the people of Iraq. We've said that all along. And now they're coming forward in masses." - Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch

"People are fed up with fear, intimidation and being brutalized. Once they hit that tipping point, they're fed up, they come to realized we truly do provide them better hope for the future. What we're seeing now is the beginning of a snowball." - Lt. Col. Val Keaveny, 3rd Battalion, 509th Infantry (Airborne)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071023/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_deaths_decline
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For years now, I've debated with good people who were against the war. When things were quite ugly in Iraq and it looked hopeless, the dire situation somehow seemed to emboldened war opponents in the righteousness of their anti-war position. "We made our bed, now we must sleep in it..." And so on. I've remained consistent in my position throughout the dark moments. I supported the war initiative from its inception in '03 and continue to do so. I am convinced that the strategy is a noble one. I didn't allow the tactical blunders from the Rumsfeld era to sway my fundamental belief in the justness of the war effort. Of course, many good people may come to a different conclusion but it was much easier to take up the anti-war position when defeat seemed like a real possibility. We'll see with what eagerness the media reports the most recent turn of events in Mesopotamia.

The only thing that really sticks in my craw is when people deny the obvious: that there is real, lasting progress in Iraq and further, when they (mostly liberal Democrats) seem to want to give up just as things are starting to turn around. The same old song is unrelenting: "We need to change course in Iraq." "The president needs to change the direction of this war, etc." It's just the same old ballyhoo that's lost all connection to reality. Let's see, we have a new Secretary of Defense, a new General on the ground with a brilliant new counter-insurgency strategy...What else could be changed? Unless "change" is simply a euphemism for surrender.