"Eat crow, Iraq War skeptics"

Hugh Hewitt has rightly focused attention on a piece by historian Arthur Herman in the New York Post. Herman suggests that the Iraq war is the centerpiece of the current nadir of the success of radical Islamo-nazis. I believe the title of Herman's piece, reproduced as the title of this post, was supplied by the editors of the Post.

In short, the larger War on Terror may be reaching a tipping point similar to that of the Iraq war.

The US public and policymakers need to recognize how this happened - and draw lessons from this success.

1) We need to acknowledge that the Iraq war wasn't a "distraction" from the War on Terror, as critics still complain, but its centerpiece.

It's not mere coincidence that our success against al Qaeda globally comes along with success in Iraq. For all its setbacks and frustrations, the Iraq war drew jihadists into a battle they thought they could win, because it would be fought on their home turf - but which they're now losing disastrously.

(New York Post)

Herman's piece is in step with my post from May 31, to the effect that the outcome in Iraq may achieve our noblest aims even if at high expense, and that the public relations nightmare for AQI has had a ripple effect spanning the globe.

Make sure you sample the reaction of a liberal, courtesy of former avid commentator and now occasional visitor, Duane. Duane's type of reaction will be all too common as we proceed to election season, I suspect, living as he does with a picture of Iraq that is stuck in the time prior to the successful COIN approach by Gen. Petraeus.