Petraeus to Reid: "Can You Hear Me Now?"

The mantra for three years was "Listen to the generals!" or the more negative, "Bush doesn't listen the the generals."

Well, it turns out that President Bush was listening to the generals, too much so and for too long. The same generals who provided the tremendous leadership that so brilliantly won the march to Baghdad in record time and far fewer casualties than anyone thought possible were not the right generals to prevail in the post-march environment.

Bush listened and followed their guidance, and Iraq decayed and the armchair warriors amongst the Democratic leadership in D.C. complained. Bush was micro-managing the war and Vice President Cheney was managing Bush.

Came time that President Bush changed out the team, a change supported nearly unanimously by the Senate just five months ago, to bring in the widely-acknowledged expert, General David Petraeus, to lead the fight.

We no longer hear, "Listen to the generals." For Senator Reid, presidential candidates Obama and Clinton, and other defenders of the American way, we hear that America's military are victims, not heroes, and not credible witnesses to the history they are making.

To a politician there is nothing that is not political. Nothing.