Iraq and Political Reconciliation

Nancy Pelosi called Iraq a failure this past weekend because the stated goals of political reconciliation hadn't happened.

“The purpose of the surge was to create a secure time for the government of Iraq to make the political change to bring reconciliation to Iraq,” Pelosi said on CNN’s “Late Edition.” “They have not done that.”

Now, it is totally unfair and a total distortion to claim that Iraq has had no political reconciliation. In fact, what Iraq has not had was any movement on any of the benchmarks that were set forth in the beginning of the surge. On this benchmarks, there has been no movement and we have seen failure, however opponents of the war are trying to pull a sort slight of hand. They are trying to convince the country that no movement on the benchmarks means no movement on political reconciliation. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The biggest political reconciliation came in Anbar before the surge even started. In Anbar, the Sheiks flipped on their AQI allies and came over to our side. Now, if that isn't political progress, I don't know what it. Furthermore, the Anbar Awakening was replicated in similar, though not exact, forms all throughout Iraq.

In Baghdad, many of the Shia turned on Sadr and his brigade when the violence tamped down and now they are also working with the coalition against the militias of their Shia brethren. That is also important political progress.

Neighborhood watch programs are popping up throughout Iraq as citizens have taken it upon themselves to report on crime and rid their neighborhoods of insurgents. This is also an example of political progress.

In fact, the surge has been largely successful due to the military version of grassroots politics. What our military has been able to do is seek out leaders of localities and flip them to our side. Usually, though not always, those are the sheiks. By doing this the rest of the community begins to fall in line.

The reason that this sort of political progress isn't seen in the benchmarks is that this political progress is largely local. The benchmarks were largely national. Ultimately, progress is progress and it shouldn't matter in what form it comes. That is just simply not the political reality in our government. The Democrats have used the lack of progress on the so called benchmarks to make the case that there has been no political progress. Of course, this is a total distortion, and one that I believe will not be sold to the country at large.

That said, it is up to those that support the war to explain that political progress and the benchmarks are not one and the same. It is frankly absurd to have this sort of sustained decrease in violence without some sort of political progress. That absurdity must be revealed.

The Democrats in Congress will try to make one last attempt to play to their far left base and attempt to force an end to the war again. They are likely to fail however that failure will only come if those that support the war do a proper job of explaining and selling the political progress we have seen, and explaining that benchmarks do not equal political progress.