All of this amplifies a steady -- and unfortunately unanswered -- chorus from the far left that the U.S. military has been sent on "Mission: Impossible" by the Bush administration. It's a refrain that began when House Majority Whip James Clyburn confessed last year that if the surge turned out to be a success, it would be "a real big problem for us." By December, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., had entered the echo chamber and began asserting -- despite all evidence to the contrary -- "the surge hasn't accomplished its goals."
Reid's unwillingness to acknowledge the success of our troops is amplified by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. In a recent interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, Pelosi declared that while some progress is being made, it is because of "the good will of the Iranians. They decided in Basra when the fighting would end. They negotiated that cessation of hostilities -- the Iranians." Let's hope she had someone on her staff send the theocrats in Tehran a box of chocolates and a thank you note.
Those who persist in spreading a diatribe of disaster -- and who insist on denigrating the brightest, best-trained, best-led and best-equipped military force in the world -- have succeeded in building a significant following. The facts on the ground, however, simply don't support their thesis. In Iraq, Afghanistan, the Horn of Africa and the Philippines, the war against radical Islamic terror is being won by the finest military force the world ever has seen.
Even the editors of the liberal Washington Post finally have conceded this reality. A recent editorial baldly warned about Iraq: "Don't look now, but the U.S.-backed government and army may be winning the war." And it took to task those who comprise "the 'this-war-is-lost' caucus." Also, this week the foreign minister of the oil-rich United Arab Emirates visited the Iraqi capital for discussions on reopening their embassy in Baghdad.
The victories over al-Qaida and the Shiite militias in Iraq, against the Taliban and Osama bin Laden's remnant in Afghanistan, and over Muslim terrorists in Somalia and the Philippines have been won by U.S. soldiers, sailors, airmen, guardsmen and Marines -- and the new allies they have advised and trained in these countries. Those who landed on the beaches of Normandy 64 years ago were American heroes. So are those who serve today.