Tailspin In Slow-Motion

The latest post by Michael Totten at WoC has attracted a couple of interesting comments. The post itself deal with how the American forces in Iraq are succesfully managing to transform from combatants into peacekeepers - following for a great part the innovations introduced by General Petraeus.

However, comment #2 states:

Don't make the mistake of thinking that the Left is utterly opposed to Petraeus' surge. We are utterly opposed to the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld disaster. Some unwisely, I think) see the surge as a continuation of Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld policies, and oppose it for that reason. Others see it as the abandonment of the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld approach, in favor of a more sensible way to dig ourselves out of this mess.

By letting the US Military become peacekeepers, policemen (and policewomen), and get on the with the essential job of nation-building (all formerly hated concepts on the Right), we might salvage something here.

And comment #4 piles upon:

But it seemed to me, and I imagine I'm not the only one on the left who thought so, that the war and diplomacy has been nearly lost by mismanagement of BCR - the hubristic diplomacy, Guantanamo, failure of intel.
I'm not defended (sic) leftists here - but if the war is to be ultimately successful, still a huge if, it will be because it went on long enough for the grownups to take over.

If these comments are indicative of any trend, we're seeing a new spin being put on current events. The achievements in Iraq cannot be ignored at this point, but they are not credited to George Bush. In fact, it is stated that those achievements came only when finally Bush left the helm to others.

Which is at the very least a curious position, because nation building has always been at the core of the Bush Doctrine and he has tenaciously stood the course, refusing to withdraw from Iraq - even if the strategy has been changed as to adapt to the conditions in the theater.

To me it seems that finally Bush has found or put the right people, in the cabinet and in the military, to put his doctrine into practice. Of course, this is from a pragmatic point of view: those who regard the actual President of the USA as evil and stupidity incarnate will be unable to agree with me.