The left remains invested in defeat

Washington Times Editorial:

The media's coverage of two recent events — the release of the new National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iraq and Sen. John Warner's call for a symbolic reduction of troops by Christmas — serves to illustrate the perverse symbiosis between defeatist politicians and a news media that is heavily invested in an American failure in Iraq. Read carefully, the updated NIE provides some ammunition for both supporters and opponents of the war, presenting dour predictions about the level of violence in Iraq and the ability of the Iraqi government to achieve national-level political reconciliation, but also pointing out that "measurable" security improvements have been made in Iraq since January and will expand modestly in the next 12 months with continued pressure on the insurgents.

Buried in the final two paragraphs of the report is the following: "We assess that changing the mission of Coalition forces from a primarily counterinsurgency and stabilization role to a primarily combat support role for Iraqi forces and counterterrorist operations to prevent [al Qaeda in Iraq] from establishing a safehaven would erode security gains made thus far... A change of mission that interrupts that synchronization would place security improvements at risk."

...

What the report is the Levin plan that the Democrats voted for in July and has been seen as a middle ground from the out right cut and run strategy of the kooks on the left. In other words as Sen. Kerry might say, it was the "smarter" approach to the war. Now it is clear what a bad idea it was all along. Whether the Democrats will be smart enough to acknowledge how wrong they were is another question all together. My guess is they will remain stuck on stupid.