When in doubt, ask a soldier.

Ralph Peters has written an article for the NY Post entitled Battling for Baghdad that gives a boots-on-the-ground view of what's going on in Iraq, with specific attention to the "troop surge" that is currently under way. According to Peters, our "boys over there" will readily admit that some major mistakes have been made by the administration, and that we are still trying to dig ourselves out from them. Yet, they also believe that we've "got a fighting chance." The main points from the article:

* Of the five additional U.S. brigades headed for Baghdad, only one is in place, with the second starting to arrive. Yet the city is already quieter and safer. The terrorists continue to detonate their bombs - with suicidal fanatics targeting the innocent - but sectarian killings (death-squad hits) have dropped from over 50 each night down to single digits.

* The tactic of stationing U.S. units and their Iraqi counterparts down in the Baghdad 'hoods is already paying off. (It should have been used from the outset - instead of hunkering down on massive bases. But better late than never.) The effort has triggered a flood of intelligence tips: When citizens feel safe, they cooperate. And when they help us, our success compounds.

* U.S. commanders now have a lot of experience in Iraq. They're not wide-eyed kids at the circus anymore. They understand there are no uniform, easy answers to Iraq's violence and complex allegiances. As a senior officer put it, "Every neighborhood and city is unique, with their own challenges."

I'll leave it to The New York Times to betray our military secrets, and just say I'm very impressed by the insight shown by our brigade and battalion commanders these days.

* We hear the bad news from the rest of Iraq, such as this week's monstrous car bombing of children at play on a soccer field in Ramadi, but we don't hear that such attacks by al Qaeda operatives have infuriated mainstream Sunni sheiks and their tribes - who increasingly make common cause with us and their government. And winning over the Sunni "middle" is crucial to Iraq's future.

* We'll never stop all suicide bombers and car bombers, but our security crackdown has already taken out two major Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosive Device (VBIED) factories. And we took down a huge arms cache late last week.

* No one's getting any "Mission Accomplished" banners ready to go, but front-line leaders in Iraq are convinced the situation just isn't as hopeless as politicians back home insist. I don't know a single officer in-country who believes the reporting from Iraq gives an honest, balanced picture.

You might argue that soldiers view the war through a straw, versus the birds-eye view we are supposedly given by the network media. Yet, it seems that, no matter how hard the Murthas and Pelosis of the world whine and complain about it, these troops wouldn't dream of coming home before they get the job done. This brings me to a point that I've made here before, which is that the Democrats have put themselves in a very awkward position. They are highly invested in the defeat of American forces in Iraq. They *NEED* us to lose. They *NEED* the surge to fail, or they look like fools for opposing it so severely, including their silly little non-binding resolutions and what not. An American victory in Iraq would be absolutely disastrous for the Democrats. As an elected official in the federal government of the United States of America, a good rule of thumb would be to never put yourself in a position where the only way you can win (that is, gain more political power) is for America to lose. Unfortunately, those on the left have done just that.

Nobody is saying that victory will be easy, or that it is guaranteed, and nobody thinks that it will happen overnight. It has been, and will continue to be, a tough fight. Thankfully, our "boys over there" have shown throughout many generations that they function very well when they find themselves in a tough fight. People like you and me will probably never understand it, but we ought to be very thankful that they are doing what they are doing. Supporting our troops does not mean asking them to cut and run before they finish their job. It means giving them the resources and the freedom they need to accomplish their mission.