Strangling the surge in the cradle

This was Harry Reid in a July 10 press release:

In short, the President’s strategy and the surge in particular have delivered few of the promised results.

In the Senate, Democrats are grandstanding for a vote on the Levin-Reed amendment to the Defense Authorization bill that will "transition the mission in Iraq."

We can conduct the kind of tough and strong diplomacy required to stabilize Iraq and the region, which even the President’s own military experts plea with him to revive. We can refocus our resources and fight a real war on terrorism that drives the terrorists back to the darkest caves and corners of the earth. And we can choose that new path right now.

Not clear how we are going to fight a "real war" against terrorists if we flee Iraq. Are we going to fight them in Finland?

Not that it will matter to the Defeatocrats, but here was Lieutenant General Graeme Lamb of the British Army and deputy commander of Multinational Force-Iraq today in a Pentagon briefing.

The surge -- again, it only came to full power, all 20 BCTs, the 15th of last month. The offensive which followed, therefore, that buildup in time and placement, has now only been going for slightly less than a calendar month. I see progress. I see progress in Diyala and Salahuddin, Nineveh. I see progress in Baghdad, out west and down south.

Is there a ways to go? Yes. The surge has allowed General Petraeus, General Odierno, the Corps to go to places where they have not been before, and you've heard that from the ground commanders, and they speak far more eloquently than I can on what that means -- Randy Mixon, Joe Fil, Rick Lynch, Jonathan Shaw down south. It has made a significant difference to our ability to close with the enemy and then pursue him, to be able to in fact take the initiative, which as soldiers we understand is important in the pursuit of this campaign.

So one month in. There's two months yet to run before the September honest assessment by Ambassador Crocker and General Petraeus as to how they see the situation, and then a ways beyond that.

So within the first calendar month, good progress, steady momentum, hard fighting, going places where they haven't been before, I see unequivocally -- unequivocally -- that this surge is making a difference.

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Blue Crab Boulevard adds: 'It is a stunt, and a lame one. It actually works against the Democratic party attempts to paint this as 'Bush's war' and puts them firmly on the side of 'Democratic party surrenders to the terrorists'".