Give it a Chance to Work

"Democrats, who earlier called for more troops, now seem to offer no plan other than to oppose Bush's effort. We think every American ought to be praying that Bush's plan somehow succeeds."

-Excerpt from an editorial in New Hampshire's Union Leader

"Nothing would more raise the tenor of this debate than if some member of the Democratic Party would take ownership of the subject of military doctrine in Iraq. On the evidence of their statements the past 24 hours, barely a Democrat exists with a clue of what Gen. Petraeus is about to do or why."

-Daniel Henninger, in today's Wall Street Journal, arguing that the Petraeus command is the overdue beginning of the counterinsurgency.

"...In an ideal world, both parties would recognize the disastrous results of a defeat in Iraq and would signal our resolve to win. But the Democrats (and some Republicans) are all too comfortable with failure.

Leading Democrats like the Speaker of the house and potential presidential candidates are indicating that if they take the White House, American withdrawal from Iraq is a certainty.

Our enemies watch CNN and read the New York Times. Perhaps they’ve noticed how eager Democrats are to cast the president’s decision as an “escalation” rather than a surge. They like the word escalation because it conjures Vietnam. Vietnam is the Democrats alpha and omega. It’s the war we lost (thanks in part to them) and they seem to want to return to the scene of the crime.

The president has freed himself from some of the rigidity that characterized his conduct of the war. The Democrats, unfortunately, are stuck in theirs."

-Mona Charen writing in National Review Online