While senators fiddle

By Herbert E. Meyer

Everything about this week's Senate hearings was disgraceful. Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, started the hearing by reading his conclusions. Shouldn't he have listened to the testimony before reaching his conclusions? And there were so many questions that none of the senators, or House members, had the brains -- or the interest -- to ask. For example, no one asked General Patraeus precisely what ought to do to win. They all assumed that victory isn't possible -- but it is.

Michael Yon, who is just about the best journalist working in Iraq, has a fascinating piece today in The Wall Street Journal. If he's right -- and he usually is -- we're closer to real victory now than ever. But to achieve this victory, according to Yon, we've got to throw in more troops -- right now. Is the President even thinking about this? If not, why not?

While we're all focusing on the Democratic campaign for the presidential nomination, the war in Iraq is coming to a climax.