Stand behind the Commitment

Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republic, via RCP:

If we should withdraw from Iraq and simply wash our hands of the situation there, we risk creating a failed state in the heart of the Middle East, a situation that would enable terrorists to train and plan attacks against the United States with impunity.

We saw just such a situation develop in Afghanistan after international disengagement from that country, and it resulted in 9/11. We must not make that mistake again.

And by turning over security to the as-yet-unprepared Iraqi forces, we threaten to plunge that country into a true civil war that could destabilize the entire Middle East and invite intervention from Iraq's regional neighbors. If we do not prevail in Iraq, we send our partners and our enemies the same message: America has neither the capability nor the will to sustain its operations through to victory.

For all these reasons, we must see this conflict through to the end. That means correcting our mistakes, building on our progress, and helping to plant in the most dangerous region in the world the seeds of democracy that will influence its neighbors. By doing so, we can begin to promote change in the oppressed societies that have bred the terrorists who threaten us.....

We are in the midst of a war, and we cannot simply consign it to our armed forces to win or lose.

Above all we must stand behind the commitment we have made as a country, both to our own national security and to the Iraqi people.

From Gateway Pundit, an accounting of the liberal pre-Iraq war prophecies of doom and what actually happened here.

And from David Ignatius, "Fighting Smarter In Iraq", Washington Post:

BAGHDAD -- Three years on, the U.S. military is finally becoming adept at fighting a counterinsurgency war in Iraq. Sadly, these are precisely the skills that should have been mastered before America launched its invasion in March 2003. It may prove one of the costliest lessons in the history of modern warfare.

I had a chance to see the new counterinsurgency doctrine in practice here this week. U.S. troops are handing off to the Iraqi army a growing share of the security burden. As the Iraqis step up, the Americans are stepping back into a training and advisory role. This is the way it should have happened from the beginning......

After the Samarra bombing, enraged Shiites killed two Sunni clerics, and there was a danger that the reprisal killings could escalate.

Tensions eased after an Iraqi brigade commander, a Shiite, rolled his armored vehicles into the Sunni stronghold of Tarmiya and told local imams that his men would protect their mosques against Shiite attacks -- and that in return, they must control Sunni militants. "He laid down the law," remembers Col. Jim Pasquarette, who commands U.S. forces in the area. The crisis gradually eased there, with U.S. forces mostly remaining in the background.