With friends like these . . .

"As the U. S. stumbles in Iraq, . . .

What!? When did this become the conventional wisdom on the conservative side as well as the anti-war left?

I hate hearing about deaths of our troops, too. But I always believed this was going to take a long time. We have jumpstarted a debate on how to establish a democratic republic in a Muslim country, and we've asked the Iraqis to write a constitution in less than a year. That they're having trouble agreeing shouldn't worry anybody.

It's frustrating to see suicide bombing and IEDs and RPGs taking a continuing toll, but I believe that expecting no casualties is unrealistic. This is not Vietnam. We are not losing. We are making progress. We are not stumbling.

I don't know where this demand for instant success comes from, but I suspect it's brewed inside the beltway between journalists, bureaucrats and thinktank theorists. These types think they have all the answers and they vary from pull out now and cut our losses to more boots on the ground to invade Syria AND Iran. I agree that the administration needs to do a better job of shoring up support, but I think that those who support the war need to do their part and not just add to the criticism. We owe it to the troops to support them and let them know it.