Too bad Dems, Iraq is not hopeless

AP/NY Times:

The U.S. ambassador in Baghdad said Sunday the situation in Iraq is ''a mixed picture, but certainly not a hopeless one.''

He said there are frustrations, but also signs of progress, and cautioned about the ramifications of a precipitous withdrawal of forces.

''In terms of the political agenda, clearly we are frustrated with the slow progress that is being made on the legislative benchmarks,'' said Ambassador Ryan Crocker. ''The Iraqis are frustrated, too. They are working hard on these things. The fact is they are difficult to do, difficult in and of themselves ... and difficult in the current security climate.''

He said the Iraqis are ''very close'' to agreement on a plan for manage the country's oil production and share resources.

''It's a mixed picture. There is some progress, but there's a lot of frustration and it's a frustration the Iraqis share.''

He said the recent U.S. buildup of forces is just now complete and is showing signs of progress in establishing security, particularly in parts of Baghdad in Anbar Province, a former al-Qaida stronghold to the north of the city.

To charges that the plan has produced a ''whack a mole'' result in which insurgents are routed in one location, only to pop up in another, Crocker said, ''What we are now positioned to do ... is whack a whole lot of moles simultaneously.''

Crocker said he and Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, will report to Washington in September, but declined to speculate what they will say.

''It will be a snapshot, obviously, but that film can't be developed until we're there in September,'' he said.

He reiterated that ''a concern I have had is that there are two clocks and the Washington clock is running a lot faster than the Baghdad clock is.''

He said the troop buildup was intended as ''a way to speed up the Baghdad clock and put a little extra time on the Washington clock.''

...

Americans in Baghdad are big on the clock analogies. There is good reason for that. While Democrats are generous with the gift of time to our enemies such as Iran, they are misers when it comes to our troops in Iraq. In fact they are down right Scrooge like. The question has become will Congress give our troops the time they need to win. Insurgencies usually take on average 11 years to defeat. We are being forced by politicians to compress that schedule. It is a huge mistake, but those who want to win the war have not been up to the task of persuading people to give that time. They have been far too easy on the people who want to lose this war for political purposes. They have been ill served by military commanders who were unwilling to put adequate forces into Iraq. At best they need the team in Iraq now to buy some time in Washington to finish the job.

Trudy Rubin of the Philadelphia Inquirer has an interesting profile of crocker and the challenges he faces in Iraq.