It's a bit premature to be proclaiming victory yet, don't you think. Other than a lowering of the level of hostilities, the situation in Iraq has changed little. If it had, there would not be so much panic at the mere mention of American troop withdrawals. The great liberal obstructionism you constantly complain about has been remarkably inept and has done nothing to restrict the administration's plans. No war budget cuts or troop callbacks have made it out of the congress. In fact, it can be argued that the only change in administration war policy which could even be remotely blamed on the Democrats, the sacking of Rumsfeld and the reorganization of the war leadership, has had a beneficial effect which the right is now claiming as its own. Even post 2006, the administration has gotten everything it asked for with little to show for it at the strategic level.

As far as I can tell, the only real success the Bush administration has been able to demonstrate so far is tactical, to temporarily supress US casualties and insurgent activity until after the election, and we still have half a year before we know whether that is successful or not. In other words, they are running out the clock and dumping the problem into the next CIC's lap.