What The Iraq Report Means

Poor Democrats and liberals. Even though they started their own war to discredit Gen. David Petraeus and Iraq Ambassador Ryan Crocker before the two could present their report to Capital Hill yesterday and today, it seems it was a losing battle.

MoveOn.org placed an ad in The New York Times to discredit the general and his report. But that didn’t change the facts of what the report said.

According to the General, the troop surge that President Bush ordered back in January is actually working. The terrorists and insurgents are taking a beating. And Petraeus has also suggested significant troop pull outs in 2008.

Now Petraeus didn’t paint an entirely rosy picture, however. The Iraqi government is still “dysfunctional” and there are still problems between the Sunni and the Shiites, he said, as reported on CNN. He does say that these matters are being corrected, however.

Yet, what isn’t being touched on enough is what Crocker said about Iran.

“I think you see a collision in Iran between their long- term strategic interests and their narrow tactical desires. Their narrow tactical desires I would define as trying to administer a defeat to the U.S. in Iraq,” Crocker said, reported by FOX News. “The problem they've got is that, if they are able to create circumstances that cause us to reconsider our commitment, the result is going to be a chaotic Iraq that, over the long run, could potentially be dangerous for them, as well.”

While Democrats, and even a number of Republicans, are calling for an earlier deadline for troop withdraw, not many seem to be concerned about the threats that are in Iraq. No one seems to be that concerned over Iran and what would happened if the U.S. pulled out of Iraq without insuring they could properly defend themselves.

And al-Qaeda, according to Petraeus, seems to be focused in Iraq. For an enemy with no real country to call home and is spread out across the globe, strategically speaking, it’s great having them in one place.

We have to remind ourselves that while we all want the troops home, if we don’t handle our enemies in Iraq now, since we have the troops and support to do it, we would give them a country of their own if we pull out. And we would have to fight them eventually.

It’s important that we don’t give our enemies the chance to catch their breaths and regroup.