by Tom Sears

I’ll be in Romania by the time you read this, and I hope I can get some overseas perspective about our current political debate. I think you will find the Romanians to be much more supportive of President Bush’s plan for Iraq. Yes, he has a plan and has been consistent with its implementation from the beginning of the war.

Only the anti-Bush, anti-America, anti-military crowd could be disappointed with the last few weeks’ good news coming out of Iraq. But there were plenty of these types to be found in our Congress and the "out-of-the-mainstream media."

Since I reported on the good news of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (I wonder? Are you still a martyr if you are simply playing cards with your buddies when the bombs hit?), there is even more to report. The treasure trove of information captured yielded immediate results. How about 452 raids, 104 terrorists killed and 758 captured? Also, there were 28 significant arms stockpiles found and documentation that shows even al-Zarqawi himself stating that they are losing.

More bad news for the antis. Of the 452 raids carried out, 255 were joint operations, and 143 were carried out by Iraqi forces unassisted by us. One of the raids by Iraqi forces in Karbala resulted in the capture of a Sheik Aqeel, "a key terror network commander wanted for assassinating Iraqi citizens and orchestrating attacks against coalition forces." He was one of the top five most-wanted terrorists in Iraq.

This bit of news was hardly even covered. Sorry leftists, we are winning. Patriotic Americans see this as a great step forward. I can’t wait to see the spin the naysayers put on this.

Already they’ve started. They keep trying to refocus all their negativity on Guantanamo, Haditha and Abu Ghraib, all accusations or overdramatized situations. Our soldiers get blamed for prisoners going on a hunger strike and also for force-feeding them afterwards.

Give me a break! If they want to go on a hunger strike, let them. Put food and water in their cells in the morning and afternoon and remove the dishes at night. Then let nature and their own free will take over. End of problem either way.

The Dems are even trying to exploit the horrible, shameful deaths of two young, heroic soldiers when they were captured, tortured and killed recently. The Democrats are insinuating that the abduction wouldn’t have happened if we had not made our opponents mad by killing al-Zarqawi. By the way, where are the human-rights groups when this unbelievable horror happens to our soldiers?

Then there is John Murtha, the Democratic congressman from Pennsylvania. Be honest. Had you ever heard of this man before he felt he had to stand up to get some of the media attention? He has done nothing of significance his entire time in Congress. Even his website staff has a hard time building a case for him.

He actually wants to re-deploy our troops to Okinawa! Does he even know where it is geographically? Congressman Murtha, which country is north of us (that’s up): Mexico, Canada or neither? Thank heavens he has a serious challenger for this November, and if we are lucky, he will go the way of Gephardt and Daschle.

Finally, the Republicans found a backbone and made the Democrats take a stand, an oddity for people who are supposed to represent their constituency. When Mr. Teresa Heinz-Kerry and Sen. Russ Feingold were ranting and raving about the need for a specific date for a total troop pullout, Sen. Mitch McConnell called their bluff and actually made their proposal a resolution to be voted upon by both houses.

Right away, they started complaining about how unfair this tactic was. It’s one thing to be brave when the president’s approval rating is sinking, but they chickened out on their beliefs when the issue was to be voted on. Once again, they stuck their finger in the air to see which way the political winds were blowing and voted accordingly. The Senate vote was 93 to 6 rejecting the most-restricting proposal and the Dems were left with mud on their faces (again).

Mr. Kerry, this is not a sporting event in which one side wins when the time is up. This Iraq game is won when the other side gives up or is eliminated. Most common-sense people understand this.

President Bush has had a consistent, unwavering plan from the very beginning: Take the fight to our enemies, give the Iraqi people the opportunity to vote for their choice of government, build up the Iraqi police force and army so it can police and defend itself, and only then start drawing down troop levels. Why are you still incapable of understanding this?

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Tom Sears is a professor of accounting at Hartwick College in Oneonta. He can be reached at SearsT@hartwick.edu. His column appears every other week.