It's really just that simple. I have not paid attention to what the candidates are saying about Iraq lately, but I imagine none of them is eager for withdrawal.
Just say things are better, present nothing to the contrary, and it becomes reality. It's amazing how it happens.
As Democrats See Security Gains in Iraq, Tone ShiftsAs violence declines in Baghdad, the leading Democratic presidential candidates are undertaking a new and challenging balancing act on Iraq: acknowledging that success, trying to shift the focus to the lack of political progress there, and highlighting more domestic concerns like health care and the economy.
Advisers to Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama say that the candidates have watched security conditions improve after the troop escalation in Iraq and concluded that it would be folly not to acknowledge those gains. At the same time, they are arguing that American casualties are still too high, that a quick withdrawal is the only way to end the war and that the so-called surge in additional troops has not paid off in political progress in Iraq.
But the changing situation suggests for the first time that the politics of the war could shift in the general election next year, particularly if the gains continue. While the Democratic candidates are continuing to assail the war — a popular position with many of the party’s primary voters — they run the risk that Republicans will use those critiques to attack the party’s nominee in the election as defeatist and lacking faith in the American military.
If security continues to improve, President Bush could become less of a drag on his party, too, and Republicans may have an easier time zeroing in on other issues, such as how the Democrats have proposed raising taxes in difficult economic times.
Isn't that amazing? The New York Times, that "liberal" old lady of news....is declaring Iraq just fine now and declaring Bush may be the winner after all.
I guess it is all over but the shouting of the anti-war activists who saw what our country did and find it sickening indeed. And if we don't remember, if we don't keep it front and center, it will disappear. The fact that we invaded a country that was no threat to us, the fact that we may be ready to do the same to another country....
....the fact that we bombed civilian infrastructure, hung their leader, killed his sons and publicly displayed their bodies...that we killed hundreds of thousands of the civilians...that we are openly using torture on their citizens...
.....it will all disappear from the news if we let it.