Redstate

Posted at 1:30pm on Dec. 5, 2007 Democrats New Iraq Strategy: Declare Victory

They Couldn’t Beat Bush So Now They Plan to Join Him

By Mark I

Predictably, but no less unbelievably, Congressional Democrats are considering a new approach in dealing with the burgeoning success in Iraq. Michael O’Hanlon, of the Brookings Institution and author of a now famous New York Times op-ed that was one of the first to claim that the surge was working, has another opinion piece in today’s USA Today. O’Hanlon argues that Democrats are due a large share of the credit for the surge’s apparent success.

Rarely in U.S. history has a political party diagnosed a major failure in the country's approach to a crucial issue of the day, led a national referendum on the failing policy, forced a change in that policy that led to major substantive benefits for the nation — and then categorically refused to take any credit whatsoever for doing so.

The Washington Post characterizes O’Hanlon’s thesis as a first airing of a possible shift in strategy by House Democrats over funding for the Iraq war. Democrats are considering dropping timeframes for troop withdrawal altogether in favor of timelines on political progress. This strategy says O’Hanlon, will allow Democrats to acknowledge the success of our troops while maintaining opposition to the war.

Read on…

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