Missing The Point

clipped from online.wsj.com Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in an interview (audio only) with the San Francisco Chronicle, offers a curious explanation for recent American success in Iraq: The purpose of the surge was to provide a secure space, a time for the political change to occur to accomplish the reconciliation. That didn't happen. Whatever the military success, and progress that may have been made, the surge didn't accomplish its goal. And some of the success of the surge is that the goodwill of the Iranians--they decided in Basra when the fighting would end, they negotiated that cessation of hostilities--the Iranians. "This is an inexcusable slander," fumes Commentary's Abe Greenwald, who accuses Pelosi of "discounting the success of the American military, denying the accomplishments of U.S. allies, and giving the credit to our most dangerous enemies." But doesn't this miss the point? Who needs Barack Obama if the Bush administration is generating so much Iranian goodwill?