Despite their unconvincing protests to the contrary, it's painfully obvious liberals just don't believe in our cause in Iraq. Their behavior cannot be explained any other way. They're clearly rooting against, indeed trying to preempt the surge and otherwise thwart our mission.

If they wanted the surge to work, they wouldn't be declaring it a failure prior to the date Commander David Petraeus set for fairly evaluating our progress -- especially considering that many signs are pointing to the surge's success.

Reports coming out of Iraq indicate that our new strategy of rooting out terrorists and holding the areas is working. Evidence is accumulating that even if our homegrown liberals aren't, the Iraqi people are increasingly turning against Al Qaeda, largely because of their brutality. Sectarian violence, for now, is declining.

In an interview with columnist Ralph Peters, General Petraeus said, "If I could only have one [thing] at this point in Iraq, it would be more time." There are no shortcuts, he said. "It's a test of wills, demanding patience, determination and stamina from all involved."

Democrats and other liberals are unwilling to give it time -- that's nothing new, and no surprise. What is profoundly disappointing is the growing number of Republican politicians who, apparently corrupted by beltway hubris and toxicity, have abandoned the mission just when it looks like we have captured momentum.

These tired elephants appear more concerned with achieving some abstract bipartisan consensus -- as if politicians rubbing each others' backs is a higher moral aspiration than protecting the nation -- than in dealing with the concrete threat of an enemy trying to subjugate and kill us. It's disgraceful.

If they are so hell-bent on affecting a premature withdrawal, they should consider affecting their own withdrawal from Congress. Perhaps it's time for these foreign policy geniuses who think they can tame terrorists and achieve world peace with a wave of their magical legislative wands to step aside and make way for ordinary people who are capable of seeing beyond their own interests and confronting the evil that threatens our future.