Even though John Murtha is trying to backtrack on his comment that the surge is working in order to get back into the good graces of his mentor, Nancy Pelosi, he said those words.

Harry Reid, on the other hand, will not admit the light at the end of the tunnel may not be a train. He says the surge is not working.

But Reid, in a Monday press conference, ceded no ground.

“The surge hasn’t accomplished its goals,” Reid said. “… We’re involved, still, in an intractable civil war.”

If everything in Iraq falls apart in the next year (and it could) then Harry Reid will be seen as a very bright man with foresight.

If, on the other hand, the surge does work and everything holds together with the Iraqis trained to protect their own, he’ll be seen just as another doomsayer who is hoping for failure in order to insure victory for his party in 2008.

Maybe he should take a trip as Murtha did and see for himself what is and what isn’t working.

I doubt anyone will tell him the central government of Iraq is working like a well-oiled machine, but then again I’m sure we had some growing pains too.