Peter Beinart, the former editor of TNR and now a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, has written a wise column in the "Outlook" section of Sunday's Washington Post. It's sophisticated message is encapsulated in a simply headline: "Admit It: The Surge Worked."
Peter details the dramatic improvements in life in Iraq as a result of the surge, although he does not promise they will last forever. Still, there they are, much less killing (in a country that had, after all, been accustomed to mass killing under Saddam), a return to some social normalcy, a military tactic of the Bush administration that had good ramifications. Peter also despairs that younger liberals will not get out of the "Colbert Report" cliches about Republican malevolence and stupidity.
My guess is that the Obama administration will take the easing of the Iraqi situation as the blessing it is. It is a blessing from David Petraeus whose wisdom George Bush was smart enough to follow. Alas, the last wisdom Bush followed was that of Donald Rumsfeld, no wisdom at all.