I wondered if the real impact of still fighting would be on the enemy in Iraq. I though it might even have a good effect on our allies in Iraq. But the volume of domestic opposition led me to despair of that impact.
Robert Kagan writes that this impact is real:
Four months later, the once insurmountable political opposition has been surmounted. The nonexistent troops are flowing into Iraq. And though it is still early and horrible acts of violence continue, there is substantial evidence that the new counterinsurgency strategy, backed by the infusion of new forces, is having a significant effect.
Some observers are reporting the shift. Iraqi bloggers Mohammed and Omar Fadhil, widely respected for their straight talk, say that "early signs are encouraging." The first impact of the "surge," they write, was psychological. Both friends and foes in Iraq had been convinced, in no small part by the American media, that the United States was preparing to pull out. When the opposite occurred, this alone shifted the dynamic.
As I wrote much earlier, if we have a reputation for sticking around as long as it takes to win, it is less likely that we will have to stick around for long in order to win. Enemies fight when they have hope. Our dissenters give our enemies that hope.
But our dissenters may have heightened our enemies' expectations, too, and our surge could be more discouraging to our enemies than it otherwise would be.
