This is not from the fringe of the Democratic party, this is from the top of the leadership. Dianne Fienstien and Harry Reid are making these statements.  If you are a Democrat, you're probably thinking this is going to be some right win hatchet job.  But this bit of nonsense isn't going to hurt the Republicans, it's going to crush the Democrats.  By insulting the general, they are also insulting every one that reports to him, and every soldier who helped with the report.
Believe what you want about the war, but the soldiers over there are in harms way, and if they don't deserve our support, or the support of the very congress that sent them there, can't these congressional fools at list respect the soldiers? 
The Democrats are really painting themselves in to a corner here. If Bush is a liar, Cheney is a liar, Condoleeza Rice is a liar, and now general Patraeus is a liar, who is telling the truth?  It seems as if the Democratic party wants to run the entire war and by-pass that pesky constituion that says the President is the Commander of Chief of the Armed Forces.

Let's allow cooler (and infinitely more intelligent) heads to prevail here for a moment.  The war in Iraq is not a complicated affair.  In fact, by definition, it really isn't even a war. We won the war. Sadaam and his band of lunatic sons are all out of power, we've put in plance a mechanism for the Iraqi people to democratically elect a new government, and we are helping the people, and the governmnet rebuild the nation.
So why are we still fighting?
Because small bands of radicals are trying to disrupt the peace.  They don't want a democracy, and certainly not in the area they live in. 

Here's where it gets tough for me; I do believe we should set a timetable.  If you have a 28 year old son living in your house, you tell he needs to get it together, get out and get a job.  He  needs to take care of himself.
The son of course asks. "When dad?.  The father replies, "As soon as you can take care of yourself."  That father or mother will end up with a 45 year old man who can't keep a job living with them forever.  So people in the real world don't do this.  They say, You've got six weeks to get your but a job and find a place to live."
Now we all know the rules and the kids gets off his rear end and finds gainful employment.  If the Iraqi government intends to govern, we'll need to give them a time table.

I was fine when we were hearing this from some of the more moderate members of the Democratic party, and even a few Repbulicans were on board. But then these party leaders come in and shoot up the saloon, before the sit down has even started.
I'm sure we'll here in the next couple of days how this was another one of those oh so famous gaffes. Similary to John Kerry calling all of our troops stupid. But let's not be fooled by this nonsense. John Kerry said the soldiers lacked intelligence and thus were "stuck" in Iraq.  Dianne Fienstien and Harry Ried believe the generals and staffs are all a bunch of liars.

These are the same type of drooling fools who keep comparing Iraq to World War II. Simply because it has taken longer. But in World War II, we suffered nearly 300,000 dead.  By this simple logic shouldn't we conclude that we're doing a great job here?  I realize some will make the argument that there should be no war at all.  We should just give each other flowers and daisies and live in peace. But you might want to read a history book before you go down that path, because it has never worked, ever.  Every war teaches us lessons. World War 1 taught us to be prepared for everything, and the the modern army runs on the supply lines.  World War II taught us that sometimes the enemies come from different parts of the world, and we have to fight completely different wars simultaneously.  This led to great de-centralization.  The Vietnam war taught us that the new game is same as the old game.  We have to roll over large areas and kill people.  We're going to have civilian casualties, and we need to try and keep them to a minimum, but only where they won't cost thousands of American casualties, or the war effort itself.    The first gulf war taught us that all the money Reagan spent on technology, that Mike Wallace told us every Sunday on sixty minutes wouldn't work? well, it works greate, and saves American lives.
So what has the Iraq war taught us?  Two big lessons.  If the nation is divided, you're going to have to keep the peace (for awhile), second; if another enemy within the theatre is trying to kill your soldiers, you may want to fight back hard for a short time.

And what do we get from the group of Democrats running for President?  Stoney silence.  They are justing waiting to see how this plays out before they reveal thier cards.  I'd say if any of these halfwits get real power in the next administration, we all better look for another place to live.

The Democrats have a real chance of winning the white House, and taking both branches of congress in 2008. But if it's going to happen, they better get some better leaders, and fast.  Plenty of sons and daughters fighting in Iraq have proud parents who are Democrats.  Continously trashing their children, and the men and women leading their children probably isn't the most effective way to drum up votes.

My advice to Hillary Clinton, Barak Obama, and all the other Democrats running for President?  You may want to put a muzzle on Fienstien and Reid like you did with Kerry. Foolish people create thier own problems, no need to have them creating problems for you.  The same could probably be said of ABC news. These fine folks ran a poll asking the American people if Patraeus would be honest.  53% said no.  I don't buy it, but the question itself is more than a little sleazy. Why would you put that out there? Why would you follow the lead of someone like Fienstien on this one?  Shouldn't ABC give the man a chance to speak as well?

Eric Gurr
egurr@intralinkinc.com