Resident calls for staying the course in Iraq
On the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 attack, I remember how my college roommate was killed in the World Trade Center and reflect on what has changed in six years. With President Bush being commander in chief, to date no new attacks have happened on American soil. Afghanistan and Iraq have been liberated with Democratic governments installed. But the terrorists continue to fight those countries and around the world. The most important fight right now in the war on terrorism is happening in Washington, D.C., where Congress was grilling our brilliant commander, Gen. David Petraeus.

Gen. Petraeus has great news from Anbar province, where Sunni sheikhs have switched sides and have stopped supporting al Qaeda and are now helping us destroy our common enemy. The next big challenge is to convince the Shiites that they can depend on the Americans and the Iraqi army and police for protection and not their militias. Progress is being made, but it takes time.

America accuses Iran of sending roadside bombs and weapons to the Shiite militias to kill Americans and Iraqis. Iran denies this. The U.S. Army just announced it plans to build a military base four miles from the Iran border to stop these arms shipments that Iran says do not exist. Time will tell.

Gen. Petraeus told Congress that the surge in U.S. troop levels has made great security progress but the Iraqi leaders are slow in making political progress The war in Iraq that a few months ago seemed lost, now has a light at the end of the tunnel if we continue down this winning path.

The danger lies with the Democratic Congress. The Democratic presidential candidates all seem to say "vote for me and I will pull the troops out of Iraq faster than my opponent." Many of them sit in Congress and are not showing statesmanship but retreat and defeat, which their left wing base so desperately wants - anything to make President Bush look bad, regardless of what negative international repercussions might harm the U.S.

In the words of Santayana, those who do not learn from the mistakes of history are doomed to repeat the mistakes of history. Another brilliant U.S. Army commander, Gen. Creighton Abrams, had secured most of South Vietnam and had trained them to defend themselves. When the North Vietnamese launched their Easter offensive in 1972, South Vietnamese armed forces threw them back with massive American air power, but few American ground troops. If America could have left a small ground force, lots of supplies and nearby aircraft, South Vietnam could have survived. But a Democratic Congress voted to deny any aid to South Vietnam. So when North Vietnam invaded the South in 1973, no American troops, aircraft or supplies arrived to help, and they fell to the communists and millions of people died.

Today a new Democratic Congress might abandon Iraq, just as an old one abandoned South Vietnam. If America leaves Iraq before they can defend themselves, the terrorists might carve out some territory as a base of operations and use oil wells to fund their terror activities. This war on terror may last a long time with devastating consequences for America and the world.

When we vote in the next election, we must vote for representatives who will not repeat the mistakes of history and settle for nothing less than victory.

Martin A. "Skip" Jessen

Edison