If you want to measure how successful the troop surge in Iraq has been you can look to signs of military or political progress or you can just ask a liberal. I blog at Wizbang and over the past year when I have blogged about progress being made in Iraq, whether it be on the battlefield or in the war for hearts and minds, I have seen an immediate flood of comments from liberals saying the surge is not really a success. They would cite the latest body count or report the latest setback -- as if military success could only be achieved if there was no loss of life or limb and wars could only be considered won if every single individual battle was won. No matter how good the news from Iraq has been over the past year, some form of that response would immediately appear in the comments section. That was not surprising considering liberals like Harry Reid declared the surge a failure and the war lost before all the troops were even in place. Nothing seemed to come more quickly or naturally to liberals than to declare the defeat and failure of the Bush administration and the United States military.

Imagine my surprise then, when I posted a story about the latest milestone of progress in Iraq and heard little more than crickets chirping. Quite a few hours after posting, a couple of liberals piped up to comment about the time frame in which troops should leave Iraq. And that was about it. No more outright claims of failure and defeat. They seemed to have picked up on the cue set by Barack Obama when he recently scrubbed the Iraq page of his website. Many liberals are finally past arguing over whether or not the surge has been successful and are now reduced to either pretending they never doubted that it would work or arguing over when the troops should come home. If that is not a sign that progress is being made in Iraq, I don't know what is.