A sign of progress

Iran Report Redux

"Gen. Petraeus and Mr. Crocker have gotten more confident about calling the surge a success, and rightly so. 'It's worth it,' said the general. 'We have seen a significant degradation of al-Qaeda's presence and its abilities," said the ambassador. 'Al-Qaeda is our mortal and strategic enemy. So to the extent that al-Qaeda's capacities have been lessened in Iraq -- and they have been significantly lessened -- I do believe that makes America safer.'

What hasn't much changed is the partisan debate over Iraq, which as Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) lamented, remains resistant even to established facts. Republicans tended to follow Sen. John McCain yesterday in arguing that 'success is within reach" and that American goals can be achieved "perhaps sooner than many imagine.' Democrats, including presidential candidates Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Mr. Obama, remain locked within the "this war is lost" prism the party adopted a year ago. Yesterday Ms. Clinton, Mr. Obama and others chose to focus on the costs of the war -- whether Iraq was spending too little of its own money, and whether U.S. resources would be better dedicated to Afghanistan. Those are fair questions, but they are far different from Ms. Clinton's argument last September that accepting that the surge had made progress 'would require a willing suspension of disbelief.'

What also hasn't changed is the sobering but firm bottom line the two envoys offer --one that neither party wants to hear. While "progress is real," as Mr. Crocker put it, it is also 'fragile' and 'reversible,' as Gen. Petraeus said. That's why Gen. Petraeus is recommending -- correctly, in our view -- that troop withdrawals be suspended after the five surge brigades are withdrawn and that further reductions be based on conditions in Iraq.

Contrary to Mr. McCain's suggestion, success will require a prolonged commitment, and even then it will not be guaranteed. But the general and the ambassador both argued that such a commitment is justified. Even with all the travails of the past five years, 'Iraqis, Americans and the world ultimately will judge us far more on the basis of what will happen than what has happened,' said Mr. Crocker. And an early or unconditional withdrawal would, as he noted, invite disaster "with devastating consequences for the region and the world."

The Post does a better job, generally, in my estimation, of sifting out better arguments. I think they have done so, here.

I think the best argument is that whatever policy is adopted must be done with the consultation of the Iraqis who will be, ultimately, responsible for security in their own country after American troops eventually leave and with the American troops who are responsible for security, in the meantime. I have very little confidence, at all, at this point, that American politicians, of any stripe, understand the security challenges we face better than troops on the ground. And I have even less confidence in the self-righteous activists that pressure and leverage them on issues that they have generally thought very little about relative to the challenges we face. The pressure and leveraging has clearly distorted the debate and discussion, by any objective standard.

What is needed is for us to face up to that, to be honest about it, and to proceed to a more honest, engaged, bipartisan conversation moderated by a sober recognition that there are many, many lives on the line, for this question. That is the virtue of moderation. It is about those who are wise enough to recognize that humility is one of the most serious virtues in a world full of strong opinions and that there are things more important in the world than their opinions. Moderation and independent wisdom is about sorting through those priorities and opinions to come to something more reasonable and thoughtful unclouded by our strong and often wrong-headed and foolish passions. Catholics and Protestants in 17th century England were driven by such passions, remember. And to most 21st century liberal democratic citizens, their wars and political battles look like so much needlessly tragic foolishness. And so it is with us. And so it will be till the end of the time. The Greeks warned us of this tendency. Hubris, they cautioned us, is the universal sin, the timeless mistake of humanity.

We're all sinners. Now we just need to move on to a more reasonable discussion of this war based on a thoughtful and practical concern about what policies might offer us the best way to a more democratic and secure future for Iraq, for America, and for the world.

Engaging those soldiers and security officials on the ground as well as their representatives in the Iraqi government might be a good start. Pressuring, leveraging, and bulling them has clearly backfired. Perhaps honest engagement might be a more effective and honest route.

That is what our deepest liberal values would have us believe, anyway. Perhaps we should give them a shot.