A Worried Mind
Michael O’Hanlon and Ken Pollack writing in the New York Times
VIEWED from Iraq, where we just spent eight days meeting with American and Iraqi military and civilian personnel, the political debate in Washington is surreal. The Bush administration has over four years lost essentially all credibility. Yet now the administration’s critics, in part as a result, seem unaware of the significant changes taking place.
Here is the most important thing Americans need to understand: We are finally getting somewhere in Iraq, at least in military terms. As two analysts who have harshly criticized the Bush administration’s miserable handling of Iraq, we were surprised by the gains we saw and the potential to produce not necessarily “victory” but a sustainable stability that both we and the Iraqis could live with.
Over at Real Clear Politics, Michael Barone talks about a Pew Research Poll on Global attitudes
...the Pew Global survey showed sharply reduced numbers of Muslims saying that suicide bombings are often or sometimes justified as compared with 2002. That's still the view of 70 percent in the Palestinian territories. But that percentage has declined from 74 percent to 34 percent in Lebanon, from 43 percent to 23 percent in Jordan, and from 33 percent to 9 percent in Pakistan.
But
Almost all Democrats are negative about the nation's future. But when one considers that America has not suffered another Sept. 11, and that it has enjoyed a surging and prosperous economy, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that citizens of this most blessed country are registering a verdict that is in tension with reality
Six years into the grossly mis-named War On Terrorism, the enemy is losing ground. The policies of Bush on this issue are slowly showing results even if many and huge mistakes were made along the way. So the question must be asked: Are Democrats really pessimistic, or are they hoping for defeat?
Democratic Congressman James Clyburn of South Carolina admitted that he is worried that the Surge may work in Iraq and ruin Democratic Party plans to impose a timetable for a surrender. Clyburn is the Majority Whip — No. 3 man in the House — and he said that if Gen. Petraeus has a positive report in September that would be “a real big problem for us” (Democrats).
...In an interview with Dan Balz and Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post, Clyburn said a U.S. victory in this military campaign would cause the 47 Blue Dog Democrats to hold off on raising the White Flag:
“I think there would be enough support in that group to want to stay the course and if the Republicans were to stay united as they have been, then it would be a problem for us. We, by and large, would be wise to wait on the report.”
A worried mind is a restless mind.
And a restless mind makes poor decisions...
