Andrea Mitchell interviews General Petraeus.

The General wastes no time in making his positions crystal clear..now only if the media would listen.

While the Democrats attempt to jockey for position to take credit for us “winning” in Iraq, (we all know it had to be that pressure they put on the President), their steady drumbeat of words fall on deaf ears with me.

This is the party whose leader told us the war was lost. Remember Mrs. Clinton’s “willing suspension of disbelief” of General Petraeus’s report to the Armed Services Committee?

How about the disgraceful actions and words of Congressman John Murtha?

We should not forget the continuous threats on the Left to cut funding for the war, knowing full well the American people would not tolerate our troops being left in further jeopardy.

As for the media, well they have done their level best to turn public opinion against the war and the President perhaps not realizing there are those of us who resent their constant negativity and lack of support and recognition for the successes achieved.

President Bush has remained steadfast in his claim that when Iraq was stable and their government was certain they could maintain the peace, we would leave. His recent conversations with Prime Minister Maliki are the beginning of that process, not some artificial time line the Democrats would prefer our troops and Iraq follow.

Wars are not won or lost by presidential nominees (especially those whose positions change like the wind) or those in Congress, many of whom have never set foot in today’s hostile environments.

No indeed, they are won by men and women like these:

Something a bit different this week, in keeping with our the war was won theme. This is a video produced by the Third Infantry Division (aka Task Force Marne and MND-C) the surge division in Iraq.

and, those who have stepped up to defend their own country as it struggles (as our nation did) to form a democracy:

Then there are times when the change hits you across the forehead like a 2×4. Yesterday I found inspiration in the tears of joy on hundreds of faces at the graduation for the Iraqi Military Academy at Rustimiyah as 252 young men graduated from the one year course of instruction and were commissioned as 2nd Lieutenants in the Iraqi Army and Air Force.

My bet is Congressman Murtha will go into hiding over the next few days.

After all, he won’t want to be questioned again about why yet another Marine’s charges have been dropped in relation to Haditha.

Charges against the Battalion Commander of the Haditha Marines have been dropped.

While it remains to be seen if the charges will be filed again in the case of Lt. Col. Chessani, the fact remains that not one Marine has been found guilty of the charges levied against them primarily stemming from a Time Magazine reporters account.

Head on over to Blackfive with the link above for all the details. The only thing I might add to this final sentence penned by Uncle Jimbo:

Shame on you Mr. Murtha you disgraced yourself, the Congress and earned the disgust of 99% of the US military.

is that there were also many civilians angry at the press in general for their handling of this case but the contempt felt for Congressman Murtha far outweighed even that.

More here.

…John Murtha says the surge is working.

U.S. Rep. John Murtha today said he saw signs of military progress during a brief trip to Iraq last week, but he warned that Iraqis need to play a larger role in providing their own security and the Bush administration still must develop an exit strategy.

“I think the ’surge’ is working,” the Democrat said in a videoconference from his Johnstown office, describing the president’s decision to commit more than 20,000 additional combat troops this year. But the Iraqis “have got to take care of themselves.”

Violence has dropped significantly in recent months, but Mr. Murtha said he was most encouraged by changes in the once-volatile Anbar province, where locals have started working closely with U.S. forces to isolate insurgents linked to Al Qaeda.

He said Iraqis need to duplicate that success at the national level, but the central government in Baghdad is “dysfunctional.”

He should recognize a dysfunctional central government when he sees one.

If only we could have gotten him to read Michael Yon’s posts and those of other milbloggers and folks on the scene, or if only he had listened to Gen. Petraeus instead of stuffing his ears with cotton plugs we could have spared the expense of sending him over to Iraq to tell us what we already know.

Of course the Iraqis have to take care of themselves and that’s what we are teaching them to do.

Boy! I’m impressed that Murtha is doing a 180, even if reluctantly. It’s kind of hard to deny success when it stares you in the face.

That great prognosticator of current events in the House of Representatives, John Murtha, is predicting the Democrats will pick up 40 to 50 seats in the House in next year’s election.

We might as well pack it in, folks. He knows what he’s talking about. After all, he’s the one who wanted to redeploy our troops to Okinawa so they’d still be close to Iraq.

He’s the one who declared our Marines guilty of murder before they were found not guilty in courts-martial.

Congress has accomplished nothing in this session and he thinks the American public will be fooled once again into voting for the same do-nothing Congress, adding more do-nothing members to the Democratic side of the aisle.

Who knows? Maybe he’s right. Somehow I doubt it.