Giuliani in strong position on the war

NY Times:

In every speech he makes, Rudolph W. Giuliani talks about Iraq and makes clear that he sides with President Bush, endorsing the war and the deployment of 21,500 more troops.

His chief rivals for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, Senator John McCain of Arizona and former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, take the same stances. But in discussing the deployment of more troops, Mr. Giuliani has been alone in saying that such a strategy may not succeed, potentially providing him cover should the situation in Iraq deteriorate further. And he has put the strategy in a broader context that plays down the importance of Iraq.

Terrorists “are going to continue to be at war with us, no matter what the outcome in Iraq,” Mr. Giuliani said recently in New Hampshire. The night before, he said that “there are no sure things,” and that if the United States fails in Iraq, “we have to be ready for that, too.” In California a few days later, speaking of “the danger of focusing on Iraq too much,” he said that complete success there would not win the fight against terrorism, and that failure there would not lose it.

...

He is right and it is an important point. Iraq is one battle and it is worth winning, but the war has many fronts and the enemy should be pursued on all of them. The criticism that has been raised about the surge makes no sense unless you want to lose the war in Iraq. Unfortunately many Democrats have already made that decision because they think it is to their political advantage to lose there. Giuliani has chosen a more honorable position.