Political Commentary: A progress report for those who may have missed it

In case you missed it, this month, the 3rd Brigade of the 1st Cavalry division of the U.S. Army came home from Iraq. They will not be returning. They will not be replaced.

They’re coming home because they have succeeded in their mission – to secure their assigned territory in Iraq’s Diyala province, to return it to the hands of the people who live there.
In case you missed it, beginning in January another four brigades will be withdrawn from Iraq. Twenty thousand men and women are scheduled to return home by July.

By Megan Ritter,

Senior Staff Writer

In case you missed it, this month, the 3rd Brigade of the 1st Cavalry division of the U.S. Army came home from Iraq. They will not be returning. They will not be replaced.

They’re coming home because they have succeeded in their mission – to secure their assigned territory in Iraq’s Diyala province, to return it to the hands of the people who live there.
In case you missed it, beginning in January another four brigades will be withdrawn from Iraq. Twenty thousand men and women are scheduled to return home by July.
In case you missed it, Iraqi security forces consisting of soldiers and policemen ready to take over responsibility from U.S. troops currently number 490,000 people.

In case you missed it, the U.S. State Department reports that violence of all kinds in Iraq is down by 55 percent from last year. In case you missed it, this month thousands of residents of Baghdad who fled as refugees to Syria during the height of violence began returning home.

In case you missed it, The New York Times reports that Iraqi citizens have begun freely moving about their cities for the first time in two years. In case you missed it, Iraq is still a troubled country and will be for a long time – but things are settling down. Life is improving for the average person. There’s no denying that we made a mess of Iraq – but there’s no denying that we had the honor to remain and clean it up.

You might be forgiven for having missed all the good news coming out of Iraq. Listen, just for a moment, to the loud voices opposing U.S. involvement in Iraq. Are they saying anything different from the things they’ve been saying for four years? Yes, they’re right that we made a mess of Iraq.

They told us that the only option was to walk away from it. They told us we couldn’t possibly make things better. There are politicians, comedians, journalists and activists who have staked their careers, their reputations, on telling us that the only way to make things better in Iraq was to walk away.
U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman, now a registered independent who was the Democratic Party’s vice-presidential nominee in 2000, is probably better placed than I am to criticize those who refuse to acknowledge the progress we’ve made in Iraq.

“The Democratic Party has become emotionally invested in a narrative of defeat and retreat in Iraq, reluctant to acknowledge the progress our troops are now achieving,” Lieberman said last week. For so many people who we call our leaders, to agree that yes, we have made progress in to Iraq would be to admit that yes, they were utterly wrong about one of the central issues of this decade, and that yes, their entire campaign platform for the 2008 presidential race is dead.