This week, General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker will return to Capitol Hill to provide their latest update on the progress made by our troops and their Iraqi counterparts in the year since the troop surge began. In spite of the politically-charged rhetoric coming from the Left, the success of the Petraeus plan is quantifiable in many important ways, with regard to both security gains and steps toward long-awaited political reconciliation.
For example, the rate of civilian and coalition deaths has declined by more than 70 percent since last June. Security incidents in the Anbar province – once the most dangerous area in Iraq – have decreased approximately 90 percent since the surge began in January 2007. And the burgeoning Iraqi government is making important strides of its own: its Ministry of Defense has assembled 134 army combat, infrastructure, and special operations battalions, the national government is sharing vital oil revenues with Iraqi provinces, and the Iraqi parliament has passed pension, de-Baathification reform, amnesty, and budget laws in just the last few months alone. In fact, the much-maligned Iraqi government has met 12 out of the original 18 benchmarks set for it and made substantial progress toward meeting five more. I often jokingly say that this gives the Iraqi parliament a better track record than the U.S. Congress, but as it turns out, it’s really not a joke. There is genuine validity to that assertion.
As a result of these indisputable steps forward, more than 20,000 of our troops are coming home. But more importantly, they are returning home after success – not defeat. That is, after all, where the difference lies between those who have stood behind the Petraeus plan and those who have sought to undermine it every step of the way. And this divide is sure to be on full display this week, when the General and Ambassador testify before the Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees in both the Senate and the House.