Winning the war is not a sentence I've seen printed in the New York Times over the last few years. Until the OpEd piece by Mike O'Hanlon was printed that is. Guarded though his optimism was is concerning the 8 day visit he made to Iraq, it still encouraging. And astonishing that the NYT would be the source of such news.Astonishing only if you have ignored other sources of information that are available covering the Iraq story. Astonishing if all you are exposed to is the drumbeat of defeat handed out daily by CNN, ABC, CBS and NBC. Astonishing if you are pessimist.
Granted we are a long way from stabilizing Iraq and providing an environment were this fledgling democracy can protect itself. However it is encouraging to see a democrat leaning member of the press put aside the "party line" and tell the truth.
As I have believed all along retreat from Iraq is not an option. We have to remain until the Iraqi's are capable of governing themselves. It will be the people of that nation that, in the end, will make this endeavor a success or failure. It is their decision to make. Our stake in this is to prevent opponents of freedom from aborting it before there is chance for it to succeed.
Reports like this show that the current tactics we are employing are beginning show signs of promise. Iraqi's that were opposed to us are now beginning to help us. This glimmer of hope deserves that we stay the course and see it through.
I sincerely hope that we as a nation will put aside the vitriol and lend to the solution instead of being apart of the problem. We have a chance to succeed, we should embrace that chance.
