The Washington Post reports today on a phenomenon that's been clear to most of us for a while now: the improvement in security that has accompanied the surge has forced Democrats to change their rhetoric:

Democratic leaders in Congress had planned to use August recess to raise the heat on Republicans to break with President Bush on the Iraq war. Instead, Democrats have been forced to recalibrate their own message in the face of recent positive signs on the security front, increasingly focusing their criticisms on what those military gains have not achieved: reconciliation among Iraq's diverse political factions.

But while Democrats recognize that Operation Phantom Thunder has changed the reality on the ground, that's no reason to re-think their stances in favor of withdrawal by a date certain--at least according to Rahm Emanuel:

House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) made a round of calls yesterday to freshman Democrats, some of whom recently returned from trips to Iraq and made news with their positive comments on military progress. "I'm not finding any wobbliness on the war -- at all," Emanuel said.

Senate Democrats confirmed General Petraeus in January to oversee the implementation of a new strategy in Iraq. House and Senate Democratic leaders brought legislation to the floor in May to fund that new strategy. Now that the strategy is working--but has only been in place since June--they say that no change on the ground could affect their view on a withdrawal.

If Democratic leaders now declare that the surge was never going to be given a chance to succeed, the American people would be right to ask why they agreed to commit American blood and treasure to it in the first place. Can Americans have any faith in the leadership of a party that would consent to a plan such as Operation Phantom Thunder, then attempt to pull the rug out just as it was seeming to work? What does the Democratic party have to offer in the war on terror if they refuse to take advantage of a chance for victory on a battlefield that Osama bin Laden regards as the central front in the war against the West?

We can only hope that Rahm Emanuel has misread his caucus. Members like Brian Baird and Jerry McNerney among others seem to recognize the simple logic that we may be 'winning' in Iraq, that there is a growing consensus among elected officials and independent analysts that things have changed, and that Congress must at least consider showing patience.

Check out this excellent piece by the New York Post's Ralph Peters on how General Petraeus has implemented a strategy to 're-liberate' Iraq.