Pelosi and Reid continue to look at the wrong tunnel for light in Iraq

Washington Times:

Top Democrats yesterday rejected reports of U.S. military progress in Iraq, saying victory remains "out of reach" as long as political divisions roil Baghdad.

"It's not getting better; it's getting worse," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat. "The goal remains out of reach."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, said the reduced violence in Iraq wasn't enough to win her support for the mission.

"Certainly any time our military is engaged in military action, we want the best possible outcome for them, and they have produced that," she said. "But their sacrifice and their courage has not been met by any action on the part of the Iraqi government."

Rank-and-file Democrats echoed the critique, saying U.S. troops were "refereeing a civil war" and the Iraqi government "has got to take some responsibility."

The outlook is fueling Democrats' push for legislation that mandates a U.S. pullout from Iraq starting immediately with a goal of a near-complete withdrawal by December 2008.

Republicans and supporters of the war effort said the Democrats were in "deep denial."

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I think this may go beyond denial. Denial assumes they are operating in good faith, but I do not think that is a valid assumption when it comes to Iraq. I see, instead, a cynical attempt to lose in spite of victory. What they are demanding of the Iraqis is something that we have never demanded of such a young government. We did not even have a democratically elected government in South Korea for decades.

When it comes to Iraq, I think the operating assumption with Democrats should be that they are acting in bad faith in hopes of securing a defeat from which they perceive a political advantage. If we win they lose in their calculation, so they will do anything for defeat.