"Democrats will look at Gen. Petraeus’s uniform and medals and fall into their usual cringe."

Paul Krugman doesn't stand in awe of General Petraeus.  Like a big chunk of the American public, he sees that "Gen. Petraeus has a history of making wildly overoptimistic assessments of progress in Iraq that happen to be convenient for his political masters."  And that's a polite way of describing what Petraeus has been doing probably because the word "lie" has fallen out of fashion.

So while Petraeus insists on his "enormous progress with the Iraqi security forces,” the rest of us are focusing on the sorry remnants of an opposition in Congress and plead with them to, in Krugman's terms, show more respect for reality than for the empty symbolism of uniforms and medals.   And that's in spite of what reality tells us, Krugman writes.

...No independent assessment has concluded that violence in Iraq is down. On the contrary, estimates based on morgue, hospital and police records suggest that the daily number of civilian deaths is almost twice its average pace from last year.

...The independent commission of retired military officers appointed by Congress to assess Iraqi security forces has recommended that the national police force, which is riddled with corruption and sectarian influence, be disbanded, while Iraqi military forces “will be unable to fulfill their essential security responsibilities independently over the next 12-18 months.”

...Any plan that depends on the White House recognizing reality is an idle fantasy. According to The Sydney Morning Herald, on Tuesday Mr. Bush told Australia’s deputy prime minister that “we’re kicking ass” in Iraq. Enough said.

...The lesson of the past six years is that Republicans will accuse Democrats of being unpatriotic no matter what the Democrats do. Democrats gave Mr. Bush everything he wanted in 2002; their reward was an ad attacking Max Cleland, who lost both legs and an arm in Vietnam, that featured images of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.

So what do the Democrats have to look forward to, after they've given Bush what he wants  for the next  15 months?  Krugman hasn't a doubt in the world:  "One thing is for sure: like 2004, 2008 will be a 'khaki election' in which Republicans insist that a vote for the Democrats is a vote against the troops."

In a headline at its website this morning, NPR's "Morning Edition" takes a more realistic view of Iraq:   "Iraq Strategy Shits as Warring Factions Fail to Unite."  Aw heck, they'll probably adjust that when they notice it.

Although Ted Koppel, interviewed on "Morning Edition" seemed secure in his belief that there will be a gradual drawdown to 130,000 troops by November 2008, the war will become "the Democrats' war" after that.

Bill Clinton, interviewed on the same program, sees it differently.

"I think for our own national security we almost have no choice but to have substantial troop drawdown in Iraq this year because we already have badly overstressed the Army, the Marine Corps, the Guard and the Reserves. If we had a genuine national security emergency in this country tomorrow that required ground forces, they would have to be supplied by the Navy and the Air Force."

Comments

[daveinboca]

Paul Krugman is Juan Cole without brains or local knowledge. It’s hard to take the latest Dhimmicrat salvos that “we’re losing, we’re losing and we have the statistics to prove it” as anything more than self-parody. The smart Democrats are discussing strategy while libtards such as Reid and Shumer do their Tweedledumb/dumber pas de deux.

Ralph Peters has a good analysis, as does Michael Gordon, two observers with extensive published analysis and experience on the ground. They both concur that the inside-the-Beltway flimflammery by and among Democrats reflects their own tendency toward suicidal eating of their young.

The liberal memes are so tired that Sen. Durbin has to come back from Iraq and after saying the surge is beginning to work, suddenly “change his mind” and say it isn’t working at all.

Remember poor George Romney in the sixties who confessed that he had been brainwashed? At least GR had a brain to wash, most Democrats are “passionate, vibrant, robust” opponents of Iraq, until they go there. Then they recant for a minute, unless like IL dodette Schakovsky they are retarded imbecilic Marxists. And then, after what gray matter they have has been washed, laundered and folded by their political commissars & media minders, they unrecant.

The Democrats keep alternating between stand-up comics and fall-down slapstick—-both very entertaining if very irrelevant.