Troop Levels Going Down in Iraq

How long until the Democrats complain about this one? Let's quickly review a little. First Democrats voted for the war, then they were against it. Then they wanted more troops, then they wanted fewer.

Now Rumsfeld and Bush have announced a planned troop reduction. Two brigades scheduled to go to Iraq will not. And the initial reduction will potentially include some 7,000 troops. That will bring the troop level down under 138,000 for the first time in a long time.

What hasn't changed throughout all of this? Bush. Say what you will about him, but from day one he said it would take a long time. He said we were there to establish a democracy and allow Iraqis to vote for their own leaders.

That has happened and now troop reduction begins in earnest. Everyone should be happy about that, but there's no such thing as good news in Washington, D.C. This will be spun, like everything else, in a negative direction somehow.

Someone said recently that we won't know how we did in Iraq for about another 10 years. That may be true, but we unseated an evil dictator (who may or may not have been a threat to the United States,) the Sunnis who boycotted the last election voted in the last one, realizing it was their best means to get what they want. They've drafted a constitution. They're trying Hussein in an established court of law.

It's tremendous progress. And now we're bringing our troops home (starting to anyhow) and a good work has been done.