But for One Minor Detail, Exactly the Same

Sometimes I wonder what planet the left side of the aisle lives on when it comes to defense matters.

Case in point, this author lauds the big effort by war opponents to lose the war with the 2006 Iraq Study Group as a barely disguised retreat, writing, "the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, widely excoriated on the right two years ago but whose blueprint is basically being followed today."

Excuse me? The Iraq Study Group certainly called for a withdrawal of American forces from combat and from Iraq in 2007. And it is true that we are doing that today in 2009.

But to say that we are doing what the ISG called for is to ignore those little facts of getting most Sunni Arabs to quit the war in late 2006 and early 2007, defeating al Qaeda in Iraq in the surge offensive during 2007, and eroding Iranian-backed Sadr's militias and death squads throughout the surge and then pounding it in southern Iraq in 2008.

Those little events that came between the ISG report and withdrawal are called "victory." That is not an insignificant detail. And the ISG report nowhere called for defeating our enemies.