Pentagon study links Saddam, al Qaeda – Stephen Hays, The Weekly Standard
This ought to be big news. Throughout the early and mid-1990s, Saddam Hussein actively supported an influential terrorist group headed by the man who is now al Qaeda’s second-in-command, according to an exhaustive study issued last week by the Pentagon.

America and Iraq – Wall Street Journal
Barack Obama continues to endorse the illusion that defeat in Iraq will help us prevail in Afghanistan; the opposite is closer to the truth. We will never maintain the support, either at home or abroad, to prevail in Afghanistan if we show we can be driven from the more vital strategic prize of Iraq.

Whatever happened to Moqtada al-Sadr – Dan Senor & Roman Martinez, WSJ
No one new about Moqtada al-Sadr when the Iraq war started.  His rise to power filled a void to protect Iraqi Shiites against Sunnis and al-Qaeda.  But the U.S. surge restored security to Baghdad and weakened al-Sadr, who recently said, "I have failed to liberate Iraq and transform it into an Islamic society."

Even critics see progress in Iraq – Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post
"There is now a real chance that Iraq will emerge as a secure and stable state," so says Anthony Cordesman who wrote, conversely in May 2006, that "no one can aruge that prospects for stability in Iraq are good."  Are Democrats so intent on denying George Bush vindication that they would deny their own country an achievable victory?

Truth Laid Baird – James Taranto, Opinion Journal
One Democrat Congressman who opposed the war in Iraq finds reason to keep our troops in place.  To him, it’s more important to do right than to be right.

Iran’s proxy war – Sen. Joseph Lieberman, Wall Street Journal
While some will no doubt claim that Iran is only atttacking U.S. soldiers in Iraq because they are deployed there — and that the solution, therefore, is to withdraw them — Iran’s parallel proxy attacks against moderate Palestinians, Afghans and Lebanese directly rebut such claims.