...about my support for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It's very uncomfortable to support any war at all, particularly with the depth of ugliness that this one has seen. From Gitmo to Haditha to early success followed by terrible failure, and then on to the beheadings and the sheer hatred that drives our enemy.

But despite the sometimes harsh words I have used in the process, I look at people like John Murtha and they give me pause because I respect them. I know he is not pursuing an agenda, but truly believes what he says and he is quite informed. It doesn't mean I agree with him, but I do absolutely realize there are two sides to this debate. And it adds great value to debate the issue.

I have less patience for those who have a political axe to grind on either side. And there are too many of those. But we have to debate every issue.

I am more hopeful than ever that we are finding a turning point in the war on terror. Time will tell. And in the end, regardless of the outcome, we have to debate what to do next time terrorism happens to America. And there will be a next time. And there could be Democrats in charge when it does. What will they do?

sharptalk

...as a result of info gathered at Zarqawi's (un)safe house.

The raids have also brought about 100's of arrests and about 25 caches of weapons. Those raids will undoubtedly lead to more raids and more busts and more information. Which will lead to more raids...and on and on.

And now the terrorists have to fight the Baghdad offensive by the Iraqi army.

This insurgency may flail as they fail. I look for a flurry of activity as they disintegrate.

It's a good day.
sharptalk

The quote below is from papers found in Zarqawis safe house. It indicates they are losing their fight with America and must get Bush to focus on Iran instead. In the face of this information and the death of Zarqawi; in the face of the Iraqi police crackdown in Baghdad; the Democrats are trying to force failure on America. Even now they are trying to force troop withdrawal. Even now they're trying to force Bush to focus on Iran. Read below and see if you can find a way to trust Democrats on foreign policy.

(A letter found in Zarqawi's hideout - from USA Today)
"Generally speaking and despite the gloomy present situation, we find that the best solution in order to get out of this crisis is to involve the U.S. forces in waging a war against another country or any hostile groups," the document said.

"We mean specifically attempting to escalate the tension between America and Iran, and American and the Shiite in Iraq," it quoted the documents as saying, especially among moderate followers of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most influential Shiite cleric in Iraq.

The document's authenticity could not be independently verified.

National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie called it "the beginning of the end of al-Qaeda in Iraq."

"Now we have the upper hand," he said at a news conference in Baghdad. "We feel that we know their locations, the names of their leaders, their whereabouts, their movements, through the documents we found during the last few days."

And now the Democrats want to surrender.

sharptalk

This war is brutal - much like every war. They are all to be avoided at great cost. But we've made inroads by killing or capturing many of the leaders of the war on terror.

While it certainly is true that they can refill their troops with young 18 year old idiots ready to kill innocent people for Allah, there is something very different about replacing leaders. And something very uncomfortable about finding out you were given up by someone inside your own terror organization.

This may be one of those situations where you just have to say, "but you should see the other guy".

Still, that's not very satisfying when we're losing our young men and women and many, many others are being maimed. And many innocent Iraqi's are being kidnapped, tortured, maimed and killed.

There has to be a turning point, a "tipping point" in this war where it moves decisively in our favor. Maybe it's the Iraqi government or maybe it's infighting within terror factions. Or maybe even the result of another military offensive by America.

But we definitely need some good news on the war. Something that says we're winning. And that it's worth it.

sharptalk

I firmly believe America's intelligence busted that Canadian Al Qaeda ring. We know where they are and what they're doing.

I also am anticipating many more raids, many more arrests and much more intelligence gathered in the coming days in Iraq after the two days of raids delivered the motherlode of intel on Al Qaeda in Iraq (and possibly Afghanistan and elsewhere).

The biggest issue that remains in Iraq is the erstwhile civil war between the Sunnis and Shiites.

We may have to leave them to solve that one themselves.

sharptalk