GOP closes ranks behind Petraeus testimony

Washington Times:

Senate Republicans, bolstered by Army Gen. David H. Petraeus' war report this week, are closing ranks and say Democrats will continue to fall far shy of the votes needed to force a pullout from Iraq.

Republicans facing intense antiwar pressure in home states, such as Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, and the party's war critics, including Sens. Richard G. Lugar of Indiana and Pete V. Domenici of New Mexico, say the general's congressional testimony helped persuade them not to switch their votes.

"I'm supportive of a reasonable plan which they offered," Mr. Lugar said on PBS' "NewsHour" after Gen. Petraeus, U.S. commander in Iraq, called for withdrawing about 30,000 troops by July.

President Bush, in a prime-time address tonight, is expected to endorse the general's plan to return to the pre-surge force strength of 130,000 troops by July.

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Meanwhile Democrats are disappointed to hear we are winning and that they cannot order an immediate retreat from victory.

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Several proposals were being weighed, including one requiring the American military role to be shifted more to training and counterterrorism, in order to reduce the force by more than President Bush is expected to promise on Thursday. Another would guarantee troops longer respites from the battlefield, effectively cutting the numbers available for combat.

Even if those proposals draw the 60 votes needed to overcome a Senate filibuster — a level that has eluded Democrats this year — any real strictures on the president would face a veto, frustrating war critics and raising the prospect that roughly as many American troops might be in Iraq a year from now as were there a year ago.

Still, the Democrats tried to get ahead of President Bush’s planned speech on Iraq on Thursday night, and to press what they see as a political advantage in opposing the war in the months before the 2008 elections.

Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, and two party leaders on military issues accused Mr. Bush of embracing “more of the same” and of trying to pass off a routine troop reduction as a significant shift in policy.

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Reid would be a pathetic leader if he were not so venal when it comes to victory in the war. If "more of the same" is a continuation on a winning strategy it would be foolish to "change course." There real disappointment is that all of their criticisms about the current strategy have been shown to be wrong on the military side and they are clinging to the political problems in Iraq like downing men. The Democrats continue to show themselves as the most disgraceful and disloyal opposition since the Copperheads.