A message to the willfully ignorant in Congress

Washington Post:

The U.S. ambassador to Iraq and a top military commander there said today that U.S. forces are making progress against al-Qaeda, with successes in the western province of Anbar now being replicated in other volatile parts of the country.

Ryan C. Crocker, who took over as ambassador in Baghdad four months ago, cautioned the Senate Foreign Relations Committee via a balky video hookup that a "non-conditioned withdrawal" of U.S. forces from Iraq -- such as a redeployment mandated by Congress -- could undo recent successes and give al-Qaeda "further room to operate."

Earlier, Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, commander of the Multi-National Corps - Iraq, told a Pentagon news briefing by teleconference that while the U.S. command in Baghdad plans to deliver a progress report on the Bush administration's troop-surge strategy by a September deadline, the military needs at least until November to see whether trends are holding and to make a "more accurate assessment."

Both Crocker and Odierno asserted that the surge has had a significant impact on al-Qaeda in Iraq, the group held responsible for most of the spectacular suicide bombings in the country. And they said a potentially crucial phenomenon in Anbar province, where Sunni Arab tribes have turned against al-Qaeda, is spreading to parts of the capital and other provinces, including troubled Diyala province, which has seen a rise in violence in recent months.

At the Senate hearing, a few Republican lawmakers joined Democrats in expressing skepticism about the surge and the Iraqi government's ability to meet political and economic benchmarks considered crucial to achieving national reconciliation. Democrats criticized Crocker for appearing to play down the benchmarks in recent remarks in which he emphasized that concerns such as the electricity supply were more important to average Iraqis.

Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), the committee chairman, urged Crocker to convey to Iraqi leaders that they are running out of time and need to move toward national reconciliation by meeting the benchmarks, "or they will have traded a dictator for chaos."

Biden said, "I believe there is no possible way we will have 160,000 troops in Iraq a year from now. Time's running out in a big way."

He later warned Crocker, "We're not staying. You don't have much time."

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Talking to those who have closed their mind to success has to be a frustrating proposition. What is really frustrating from Washington, Texas is that the people who are most knowledgeable are the ones who want to stay and finish the job and the ones who are hell bent on a retreat want even listen to what the facts are. It is hard to recall a group of Senators who determinedly ignorant on an issue of great importance. If this war is lost, they are the ones who lost it. It is certainly not the military or the President who will make the wrong decisions that will give the enemy something that he has not earned. BTW, the Post story on this briefing is much fairer than the one in the NY Times.