Iraq and Learning to Ride a Bike

Is anyone else becoming tired of the "He said...He said" game that Congress and the Prez are playing? You know, the one that prints a quote that, for example, points out how dangerous Saddam Hussein is and then shows that it was President Clinton or John Kerry or Ted Kennedy or (name of Demonic Democrat du jour)? And that proves that said Demonic Democrat felt the same way as our Sainted Prez.

News flash: the Kids in the Halls aren't listening.

Nor will they believe you. They have their Truth from their Prophets and you can take them back with a Pensieve so they can witness what was said for themselves and they still won't believe you.

I say it's time to stop this nonsense. It's time for the Prez to act patriarchal, in the old-fashioned, Biblical sense.

The U.S. is in Iraq. It doesn't matter how we got there. We aren't leaving. Deal with it.

We're like the parent teaching their child to ride a bike. The training wheels are off, but we have hold of the seat. We'll run along behind until that magic moment when we know it's time to let go. How will we know? We just will. It's a feeling you get, when the wobbling stops--or is minimal--when you know your child can do it and s/he isn't quite sure that s/he can. So you let go. And they go on. And when s/he falls, you yell encouragement, maybe help her/him pick up the bike, get back on, and do it again.

The Iraqis are almost there. The training wheels have come off, but the support we give isn't just psychological. We're not at the cheering from the curb when the child rides by, solo. Not yet. But soon. Our troops know. They can feel it, they can sense it--judging by the comments I'm reading in the milblogs--and the Iraqis know it, too.

But the petulant Dems are like kids with their fingers in their ears, singing "LA LA LA, I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" over and over again, their eyes tightly shut.

From my experience, there's only one way to deal when they get like that. And it's not to waste time showing them how illogical their worldview is. It's not showing them Reality.

It's time to show Authority.

Forget about how we got into Iraq. We're there now. We're not leaving until the Iraqi government asks us to. Which will be when they have faith that their own Army and Police Force will be able to keep the population safe and secure. And for those who don't have their fingers in their ears, here's the progress that we've made, the schools we've built and the number of children--boys and girls--attending, the number of battalions/units/whatever the Iraqis have manned, the barrels of oil they're producing, the number of markets that have opened, the number of hospitals that are open and the supplies they have.

The Iraqis still have a ways to go. And we'll be there to help.

End of story.