Grits and gesundheit:Listen to celebrities; support the war

By Caroline May     3/20/08 7:00pm

Pop Quiz: Who recently wrote this in a Washington Times opinion piece? "What we cannot afford, in my view, is to squander the progress that has been made. In fact, we should step up our financial and material assistance ... I would like to call on each of the presidential candidates and congressional leaders to announce a comprehensive refugee plan with a specific timeline and budget as part of their Iraq strategy. As for the question of whether the surge is working, I can only state what I witnessed: United Nations staff and those of non-governmental organizations seem to feel they have the right set of circumstances to attempt to scale up their programs. And when I asked the troops if they wanted to go home as soon as possible, they said that they miss home but feel invested in Iraq." Your choices: A) Senator Joe Biden, B) General David Petraeus, C) President George W. Bush or D) Angelina Jolie. If you guessed A, B or C, you would be wrong. While some may attempt to brush aside the good reports, empirical evidence and success stories, the truth is becoming harder and harder to ignore. Even Jolie, the ever-difficult-to-label, yet prominent media figure has even weighed in on American progress in Iraq.

A little over a year ago, Jan. 10, 2007, President Bush announced that there would be a surge of American troop to Iraq. Deemed a failure by liberal critics, prior even to its inception, opponents of the Petraeus policy now face a cruel irony.their plan is triumphant, yet their credibility is waning.

The surge's success is undeniable. With each passing day, the region has become increasingly secure. Insurgent attacks have fallen 80 percent in the last year, U.S. troop casualties are down significantly and Iraqi deaths have plummeted by 66 percent. The liberally-tinted mainstream media is now forced to either ignore or provide the public with the good news. Even the New York Times has eked out such reports as "American forces have routed al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the Iraqi network, from every neighborhood in Baghdad."

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Even public opinion, despite a relative lack of mainstream reporting, has risen in favor of the President's policy. While the issue continues to break quite starkly on the basis of party lines, the trend is irrefutable. The Pew Research Center reported last month that the number of Americans who viewed the military effort as going very or fairly well has gone up 18 percent. Further, the number of Americans who believe the U.S. will triumph went up another six percent.

The President is making good on his promise to provide security for the American people and retribution to our enemies. Back in 2003, Bush sent liberal Democrats into a horrified hissy fit with his aggressive assertion: "Anybody who wants to harm American troops will be found and brought to justice. There are some that feel like if they attack us we may decide to leave prematurely .. There are some who feel like the conditions are such that they can attack us there. My answer is: 'Bring 'em on.'"

The hard-line approach, as it pertains to the defeat of America's adversaries, has earned President Bush the distinction of being demonized by the same types of rhetoric as former President Ronald Reagan whose aggressive stance toward the Soviet Union brought an end to the Cold War. In the 1980s, critics condemned Reagan as an aggressive fool, a warmonger who would lead the country to nuclear war. Sound familiar?

Despite the vociferous opposition, the decisions made by our commander-in-chief, when paired with the tireless and courageous efforts of our brave troops in uniform, in the end were correct. While there is little chance Senator Hillary Clinton will be held accountable for her fervent denigration of the policy or that Senator Barack Obama will receive much criticism for his counter proposal to have begin to move U.S. troops out of the region by March, it is important to keep in mind those who were in favor of the surge from the get go. For all my critiques of Senator John McCain's lack of conservatism, his unwavering support for the successful Petraeus policy, in the face of vitriolic antagonism, is something to keep in mind as this election year rolls around.

Caroline May is a Will Rice College junior.

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