Tonight the President is going to announce his plans for moving forward in Iraq. There’s apparently going to be some good news – the rules of engagement, especially those involving the Shiite militias, well be belatedly altered. The bad news is that the 20,000 new American troops headed to Baghdad will be serving in a support capacity for the Iraqi government’s forces. This suggests that the American war effort will remain overly risk averse. If the administration is to finally let loose the dogs of war, one wishes that it were unleashing American Pit Bulls rather than the Iraqi Poodles.

Perhaps the best news of the past week is that General Dave Petraeus will be taking over the American war effort. Since the earliest days of the Iraqi war effort, Petraeus has distinguished himself as something special. A lot of people, including the estimable Ralph Peters, feel that Petraeus is the best the American army has to offer. Given the nature of the challenge, it’s reassuring that the A-Team is finally on the job.

BUT WHAT OF THE LOYAL OPPPOSITION? As a thought exercise this morning, I was pondering what would happen if it all worked. What would become of the American left if Petraeus performs wonders, the surge pacifies Baghdad, and peace spreads through Iraq in a viral fashion? Would the American left be capable of accepting victory?

One thing that has become painfully clear in the new Congress’ opening hours is that the mainstream of the Democratic Party is desperate for the Iraq war effort to fail. For those who have monitored liberalism’s inner demons the past few years, this is no surprise. Every American setback has been gleefully greeted as a portentous sign of imminent disaster. Actually, every event whether a setback or not has been gleefully greeted as a portentous sign of imminent disaster. So, too, has every non-event.

Let’s give the American left its proper due. They were right about Iraq inasmuch as it has turned out to be much worse on every level than we hoped or expected. But then again, the critics on the left were the people who pronounced Afghanistan a quagmire after two weeks. These were the same people who said the first Gulf War would be another Vietnam and claim 50,000 American casualties. Even stuck clocks are right twice a day. In the same manner, those who had been forecasting and pining for America’s comeuppance had to be right someday.

A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO, I wrote about a dinner party Mrs. Soxblog and I held at stately Soxblog manor. One of the guests was a dignified man, about 60 years old, who despite possessing a gentle and gentlemanly manner practically frothed at the mouth with Bush hatred whenever the president’s name was mentioned.

Soon the conversation turned to the increasingly difficult struggle in Iraq. His delight over American setbacks was so palpable that I asked him if he wanted us to win in Iraq. He demurred. I repeated the question. After a long pause, he hissed, “I want this country to learn a lesson.” I let the conversation end there, because if I offered the obvious retort of burying his face in Mrs. Soxblog’s delectable apple crisp, I feared it might create an incident.

At this point in time, my belligerent dinner guest sadly represents the mainstream of American liberalism. He and his fellow travelers don’t believe in American exceptionalism. Quite the contrary, they believe in America’s overarching mediocrity (or worse) and pine for the day when those who believe otherwise are taught a lesson regarding what they consider to be America’s true nature.

So it’s natural that anyone who suggests a way forward in Iraq that might succeed would draw the ire of the American left. These people are completely invested in the venture failing. Nevertheless, it comes as quite an irony that the same people who have spent the past three years belittling “staying the course” now reflexively reject anything that resembles a course correction. They only want surrender, which will serve as an acknowledgement that America has “learned a lesson.”

AM I QUESTIONING THEIR PATRIOTISM? A bit, but that sails wide of the mark. What I’m really doing is pointing out their view of America. They consider us weak, arrogant and lazy. If you listen to a Bill Maher monologue or a John Edwards campaign speech, you get the same message – America is a festering sump hole of problems and Americans are too lazy and disengaged to do anything about it.

This is their worldview. And they’ll throw everything but the kitchen sink, including the hefty Ted Kennedy, at anything that threatens to disturb that worldview.

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