Very good news is coming out of Iraq. Not surprisingly, this hasn’t caused a change of heart among the Democratic leadership. It hasn’t even given them pause. One wonders if they are capable of hearing such news anymore.
The Times Online reports al Qaeda faces rebellion within its ranks. “Fed up with being part of a group that cuts off a person’s face with piano wire to teach others a lesson, dozens of low-level members of al Qaeda are daring to become informants for the U.S. military in a hostile Baghdad neighborhood.”
Some junior al Qaeda members are said to be repulsed by the gratuitous, barbaric violence. One said, “I am sick of it and I hate them, and I am done.”
The good news doesn’t stop here. Al Qaeda not only faces internal dissension, but evidence emerges that other ethnic forces formerly friendly to al Qaeda are changing their tune. Iraqi locals are denying al Qaeda the sanctuary they need to operate. Lt. Col Stephen Michael, commander of a 700-troop battalion in Doura, says, “Al Qaeda’s days are numbered, and right now he is scrambling.”
This news, says the Times, comes out of Doura. But it “is part of a wider trend that has started in other al Qaeda hotspots across the country and in which Sunni insurgent groups and tribal sheikhs have stood together with the coalition against the extremist movement.”
Along the same lines, The Washington Times reports U.S. forces have brokered an agreement between Sunni and Shi’ite tribal leaders in Taji, Iraq, to join forces against al Qaeda and other extremists, an extension of a policy carried out in Anbar Province “that has transformed the security situation” there.
This isn’t some flimsy handshake deal. Tribal leaders agreed to use members of more than 25 local tribes to protect the area around Taji from Sunni and Shi’ite extremists. It’s also significant that tribal forces approached U.S. forces to initiate this agreement.
Al Qaeda’s inhumanity is not the only reason things are beginning to change in Iraq. The reports clearly indicate the increased number of U.S. forces in Doura has made the locals feel it’s less dangerous for them to turn toward us. These reports are direct confirmation that the surge strategy is working.
This newspaper also reports — surely much to the chagrin of war naysayers who had gloated we were greeted not as liberators but occupiers — that U.S. soldiers walking through Sunni villages have been greeted “warmly,” with locals shaking the soldiers’ hands and kissing their cheeks.” Just a month ago, said Sgt. Richard Fisk, “every single one of these people was shooting at us.”
Has any of this good news coming out of Iraq prompted Democrats to rethink their opposition to victory?
A brief survey of recent headlines reveals quite the opposite. Sunday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he would press forward on legislation to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq, despite the Democrats’ failed efforts last week to pass such a bill. He also said Republicans who voted against withdrawal of our troops were engaged in partisan gamesmanship. If that isn’t a textbook case of psychological projection, I’ve never seen one.
Meanwhile, Wisconsin’s Sen. Russ Feingold told NBC’s Tim Russert he wants Congress to censure President Bush for managing the Iraq war and for his “assault” on the Constitution. While Mr. Reid didn’t readily warm to the idea of a censure, he did say “the president already has the mark of the American people that he’s the worst president we’ve ever had.” How’s that for rising above partisanship and supporting your commander in chief during wartime?
Elsewhere, that great patriot from San Francisco, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, derided President Bush’s call for congressional Democrats to “rise above partisanship.” Like Mr. Reid, Mrs. Pelosi said the American people have lost faith in Mr. Bush and she will continue to cause Congress to vote to end this war every chance she gets.
Speaking of partisanship, news reports around the Web demonstrate that while the Bush administration and our armed forces are doing everything possible to accomplish serious, nonpartisan business in Iraq in furthering the nonpartisan goal of promoting our national security, Democratic leaders are bogging down the administration in frivolous investigations over matters that arguably aren’t even illegal.
In other news, Democratic presidential candidates travel the country trying to outdo each other in the “nonpartisan” pandering to illegal immigrants for their votes (Illinois Sen. Barack Obama has gone so far as to court La Raza). Other party leaders are trying to develop strategies to unburden the party of its image as the party of abortion. Of course, they’re not doing anything to unburden themselves of the party’s moral failure on it. That concludes our report.
David Limbaugh is a nationally syndicated columnist.
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