American Troops Continue Their Hard Work Worldwide (no thanks to the liberal media)

This week, Congress has grilled General David Petraeus, as well as other high level officials. Republicans have generally sought reassurance, as one put it, that there is light at the end of the tunnel. The expected announcement of troop cutbacks comes as welcome news, but war supporters increasingly call for some idea of when Iraq will be ready for us to leave.

Democrats of course came out with their knives sharpened. Many of them almost gleefully (including some of their presidential candidates) too the opportunity to criticize without offering their own ideas. This is all too familiar territory for liberals. They attack without offering solutions of substance. They know that running away won't deter America's enemies, but it's much more important to try and win the next election.

It is interesting that the liberal media hangs on the words of a few retired generals that have not set foot in Iraq if they are critical, but ignore the facts given by the guy that has been there doing the job.

Moving Iraq into the next phase will require a massive investment in intelligence capabilities. When President Jimmy Carter pulled many of our human resources off the ground in the Middle East, he destroyed decades of work. We still have not restored our former capabilities there and reap the consequences of that president's poor decision-making. America must invest the resources, but also demonstrate the willingness to allow the CIA enough latitude to do its job. We must be willing to let them do in real life what we expect them to do in the movies. Sometimes that requires harsh measures. That, however, is how we move Iraq forward towards a successful conclusion and remove most of our ground forces.

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You will never hear about these guys on the news either, but their hard work deserves a salute.

The USNS Comfort just concluded a week long deployment in Haiti. The medical relief ship has been deployed by the Navy on a tour of the Caribbean and some Latin American nations. In Haiti the ship's staff treated over 11,000 Haitian patients in one week. Throughout the tour thus far they have seen well over 70,000. A Naval Construction Battalion Maintenance Unit went ashore to repair water facilities and work on other community projects.

Not just in Iraq and Afghanistan, but in so many places around the world our men and women in uniform work, struggle, and sometimes sacrifice to improve people's lives.