We Will Win, If We Persevere

Has there ever been a time in the nation's history when a major political party has aligned its fortunes with Amerida's defeat? Well yes, there was. It was the Civil War. And again, it was the Democrats versus the United States.

Fred Barnes points out what the mainstream media hides - that we are winning in Iraq.

To share the Iraq-is-lost sentiment, one must ignore a spate of good news. The uprising of Muslim cleric Moktada al-Sadr has fizzled. He negotiated a face-saving compromise that will keep him out of jail for the time being. But his movement failed in two important regards. It didn't ignite a widespread Shia revolt against the American military occupation, and it revealed his Mahdi Army as a paper tiger. American troops will not officially control Najaf, Karbala, and Kufa, the cities Sadr had seized, but they will patrol them and occupy the government buildings. The fate of Sadr, who's been charged with the murder of pro-American Ayatollah Khoei last year, will be left up to Iraqis. This is an imperfect solution, since the Iraqis have been unwilling to arrest Sadr, much less jail or execute him.

The Sadr insurrection also prompted mainstream Shia clerics led by Ayatollah Sistani to speak out. Not only did they ostracize Sadr and tell him to vacate the holy mosque in Najaf, but they also disputed his claim that American soldiers had fired on the mosque. Quite the contrary, they said Sadr himself was responsible for damaging the mosque. The White House was understandably thrilled. Sistani, the most powerful religious leader in Iraq, had never before been as active politically. He wanted Sadr sidelined without a huge battle in Najaf that might have transformed Sadr into a national hero. And that's what Sistani helped to achieve.