The position that Democrats have gotten themselves into

The Democrats, in order to secure political advantage, have put themselves in a place where they have bet on our failures in Iraq. So they don't need to listen to the commander of our forces in Iraq or the ambassador to Iraq who are working every day to improve our situation there. As Thomas Sowell points out, Democratic leaders are asserting that they know about the military situation there than General Petraeus because they have to reject any signs of improvement.

But people who have never even put on a uniform are confident that they know how our troops should be redeployed. Maybe this is one of the fruits of the "self-esteem" that is taught in our schools instead of education.

The biggest flurry of amateur military pronouncements occurred just before General David Petraeus testified before Congress on the situation in Iraq. Many Democrats publicly dismissed what he said before he said it, and some implied that he was a liar before he opened his mouth.

The real problem is that many Democrats have bet the rent money on an American defeat in Iraq, and without that defeat they could find themselves in big trouble in the 2008 elections.

Politically, the Democrats are caught between Iraq and a hard place. Their left-wing base has been angrily pressing them to cut off financial support for the war in Iraq but Congressional Democrats dare not outrage the rest of the country by doing that.

Leaders of the Democrats in Congress have already tried various ways of sabotaging the war effort, with arbitrary timetables for withdrawal and financing the war for only short periods, so that President Bush would be forced to pull out American troops and could then be blamed for the defeat.

But that hasn't worked either because not enough Democrats in Congress are willing to risk political suicide by obstructing the military in ways too blatant to pass muster with the public.

The next best thing politically for the Democrats is to say that the situation is hopeless. The last thing they need to hear is that there is now some progress in Iraq.

How does a political party get itself into the position when bad news for the country is good news for them and where they have to deny any sign of good news whether it be on the economy, our successes in the war on terror, or the success of our troops in Iraq.