April 8, 2008

Testifying before several congressional committees today are the commander of coalition forces in Iraq, general David Petraus and the U.S. Ambassador to Baghdad, Ryan Crocker.

Opponents of the war, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have fired warning shots that the two had better not gloss over recent outbreaks of fight in Basra and other problems for the sake of claiming the surge is working. This is called a pre-emptive strike. Pelosi and her democratic colleagues are so invested in defeat, they refuse to acknowledge progress of any kind.

That’s too bad, because the outcome of the Iraq war will affect us all. If we lose and al Qaeda is able to establish a new permanent base, we will pay for it in blood for decades to come. That’s a fact.

Pelosi and company seem to be suggesting that a four star general and a respected diplomat would deliberately lie in order to obtain the political objectives of the Bush Administration. If that’s what they think, they should say so. They should not try to intimidate these men even before they speak.

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Cal Thomas is a nationally syndicated columnist based in Washington, D.C.