There is still a very long way to go. Press reports indicate al-Qaida forces
have moved to Northern Iraq where they are setting off improvised explosive
devices and engaging in suicide bombings, but American and Iraqi forces have
them on the run. Securing Iraq's capital city would be both a substantive
and symbolic success.
Broadcast television has mostly ignored the Iraq story in recent weeks.
Tyndall Weekly, part of ADT Research, which monitors the Top 10 stories
covered by broadcast news, found that Iraq had dropped off the list for
several weeks in September and October, reappearing as number six in the
week ending Nov. 2.
Can the Democrats come back from their embrace of defeat to change the
subject? It isn't likely, as Republicans will most assuredly question their
poor judgment and "cheerleading" for the enemy. Republicans will rightly ask
whether Democrats should be trusted to make correct judgments about the
wider war on terrorism if they made the wrong judgment on Iraq, an important
component of that war.
Democrats continue to be politically vulnerable on national security. An
Iraq victory or even major progress toward victory could become a winning
issue for Republicans. Not known for quoting approvingly from the mainstream
media, Republicans might willingly do so in the case of The New York Times,
the Washington Post and this morsel from Newsweek foreign correspondent Rod
Nordland: "For the first time returning to Baghdad after an absence of
four months, I can actually say that things do seem to have gotten better,
and in ways that may even be durable."
The Pentagon labeled America's response to the 9/11 attacks "Enduring
Freedom." There's a way to go yet, but this moniker might turn out to have
been prophetic.