Americans Get The Big Picture

TODAY AS Gen. Petraeus reports to Congress on the limited results of the “surge”—that it is reducing insurgent activity but not solving the political situation in Iraq, it is helpful to look at the big picture, as Michael Barone does.

He notes that independents join with Democrats in blaming President Bush for the conduct of the war in Iraq.

And he notes that independents side with Republicans in agreeing that the threat from Islamic fundamentalists will not go down once President Bush leaves office.

But you don’t see such a partisan division when the question is whether the next generation of Americans will be less safe from foreign threats than we are now. Americans agree by a 57 percent to 39 percent margin — the margin of agreement is statistically identical among Republicans (17 percent), independents (19 percent) and Democrats (18 percent).

So the American people understand that this is a long war. But they are also frustrated by the lack of progress in Iraq.

You could argue that the real strategic purpose of the “surge” is to make sure that the Democrats get handed the Iraq hot potato in January 2009.

What they’d like is to force Bush out of Iraq before 2009 so that they could say that Bush lost Iraq.

What Republicans want is for Democrats to put up or shut up. And that will only happen when a Democrat is in the White House.

Then we’ll know what they really mean to do about the challenge of Islamic fundamentalism. And that will be good for all Americans.

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Christopher Chantrill blogs at www.roadtothemiddleclass.com. His Road to the Middle Class is forthcoming.