"The Metrics Pointed to Failure"

One of the key things to understand about human conflict (and that means human life in general) is that victory usually goes to the guy who gives up last.

So when you speak about Iraq in terms like this: “The Metrics Pointed to Failure,” you are missing the point.

When “you,” as Jennifer Rubin writes, are the very foolish Andrew Sullivan, you see the problem.

Of course the metrics pointed to failure. When things are going wrong, that is the time to hitch it up or quit. President Bush chose to hitch it up and double down. Now it looks like he was right.

Well, says Andrew Sullivan, no doubt the invasion was still a mistake, but it looks like it need not be a catastrophe in the medium term.

Petraeus deserves the lion’s share of the credit; luck and time and the self-defeating nihilism of the Jihadists have helped. But Bush and McCain equally merit points for pursuing the surge, even though the metrics pointed to failure. Obama needs to capitalize on these gains, not dismiss them.

“Obama needs to capitalize on these gains?” You mean, as in, take credit for them?

Anyway, General Petraeus aside, let’s get serious here. Bush is the man who made the decision, to go with the surge when everyone else (especially Andrew Sullivan) was losing their head. If the surge is a success, then Bush gets the credit.

But look for Obama to throw the anti-war left under the bus this summer after a fact-finding trip to Iraq.