Have to admit it felt great to see this letter to the editor in print.
Congress AWOL on gratitude to Patraeus
Gen. David Patraeus gave Congress the progress report they legislated and demanded in mid-September.
The count of weapon caches found and removed in Iraq (4,400 between January and August 2007 compared with 2,700 in all of 2006), the dramatic drop in IEDs, bombs, sniper, mortar and rocket attacks, and the pacification of Anbar province all indicate that the "surge" is working even better than predicted in late 2006.
Congress asked for and got a "change of direction" in Iraq last November. Now that the change has produced positive results, thanks to our troops' magnificent performance and better counterinsurgency strategy, where was the gratitude? It was AWOL. Gutter politics and re-election dreams trumped a simple, "Thank you, Gen. Patraeus."
Much like our own Congress, the political progress in Iraq has been slow, inefficient and characterized by name-calling, turf protection and grandstanding instead of respectful debate, give-and-take exchange and progress over preening.
Let the surge continue and maybe Iraq's congress and our own will finally get it.
- Bill Richardson, Madison
No comments:
Post a Comment