Perlmutter, Please come correct!

A sure sign that the U.S. Military is succeeding in Iraq is when a democrat congressman tells you so (Perlmutter sees some hope in Iraq, RockyMountainNews 12/8/07). After two years of campaigning against success in Iraq, advocating retreat and defeat and voting against military appropriations, there’s a hearty meal of humble pie waiting for Colorado's Ed Perlmutter, after his recent visit to Iraq. While Perlmutter said he saw” absolute optimism, hope, spirit and spunk in the eyes of some Iraqi kids” in Jordanian refugee camps, he failed to mention the 30,000 Iraqi refugees who returned to Baghdad just last month. While he “talked with our men and women up there”, Perlmutter couldn’t bring himself to even utter the words ‘military, soldiers or U.S. troops’ anywhere in his interview and while crediting Gen. Patreaus and the “surge”, he neglected to credit our Commander In Chief who stood strong despite the wave of national pessimism which characterized the election of 2006.In his interview, Perlmutter twice suggested that America should assure Iraqis that “our troops will not be there forever”, rather, we should honor our commitment, and not cut-and-runa (as was the case after the 1rst Gulf War), until they have the security and political situation under control.
Congressman Perlmutter didn’t have to travel 8,000 miles to Ramadi to learn about such progress, but now even he can’t, and doesn’t deny it. Ed Perlmutter now needs to admit he was wrong about Iraq. He needs to apologize for bad-mouthing President Bush and stop trying to hamstring our military, by linking premature withdrawal deadlines to military budgets. Now that's the kind of political reconcilliation/progress I'd like to see.