There is also no doubt Democratic war critics and their leftist allies at MoveOn.org suffered some blows and were bleeding, strategically and politically. Before the week was over, they had been decked by a one-two punch. The first delivered by Gen. Petraeus' troop-withdrawal recommendations; the second, by President Bush who quickly embraced them.
In one bold, outflanking maneuver, the Republicans were suddenly on the offensive again and the Democrats were desperately playing defense as best they could. Only this time they were the ones opposing the troop pullout the administration was preparing to begin in the coming weeks.
Jim Hoagland in the Washington Post sees it differently, From Hope to Fear in Iraq:
The thrust and parry of spin and counter-spin resembled the stuff of ephemera rather than the stuff of history. Cool, competent performances by Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker on Capitol Hill aimed at buying six to nine more months for something to turn up, as the two men honestly if indirectly acknowledged.
Nor can the other nightmare he has publicly outlined be discounted. That is of a horrific bloodbath in Iraq if U.S. troops are withdrawn precipitously. A stasis of power, of defeat and victory, has yet to be established in Iraq.
But policy dominated by nightmarish fear inevitably incurs unbearable costs at home and abroad. What Washington witnessed last week was not a true reassessment of America's involvement in Iraq. Bush, Petraeus and Crocker left events to force a reassessment that is still to come.
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