The cavalry arrives

By Greg Richards

A positive post yesterday (Monday, February 19, 2007) by Mohammed at Iraq the Model on conditions in Baghdad:

Although attacks happen here and there, the general feeling is still closer to hope and appreciation of the plan than pessimism. More families are returning to the homes they were once forced to leave, and we're talking about some of the most dangerous districts such as Ghazaliya and Haifa Street.[emphasis added]

This was posted after the big blast in Baghdad on Sunday. It shows that the surge strategy that General Petraeus is executing is not a fool's errand as many in Congress seem to believe. Yes, we don't yet know if the bad guys will be able to restore their position after the surge, but we don't want to miss the point that the surge itself is working. This was not expected by the pessimists and is by itself an uptick.

We as citizens have to separate ourselves from the colossal mistakes made so far and focus on "what do we do now?" President Bush has one of the requisites of a great leader - steady nerves - and, whatever the mistakes of the past have been, we appear to have the first team leading our side now. Let's not panic at a critical point as our forbears did not panic at Valley Forge or at First Bull Run or at The Bulge.