Tenacious Falsehoods

I think Jeff Goldstein (h/t Instapundit) is absolutely right when, after accurately summarizing the Administration's position on the Iraq war "debate", he says:

These points, taken together, form an easy, concise, and—most importantly—a factually correct counter-narrative to the Dem / MSM narrative that has preached confusion, failure, quagmire, American criminality (torture, WP), and the relentlessness of an insurgency whose battleground savvy and knowledge of the Arab world are thwarting the plans of our confused military leaders and civilian war commanders. Oh. But we LOVE THE TROOPS!

Jeff concludes:

I think the narrative is a good one, but it needs to be repeated as loud and as often as the one the Dems have been peddling.

For my money, it is a national tragedy that Jeff is right, a national disgrace that the factually correct narrative needs endless repeating lest it by swallowed whole by counter-factual piffle. To me, the whole debate is 100% political. It offers nothing. Even if the Democrat's narrative were correct -- and it is demonstrably false -- so what? We're in Iraq now and the decisions we make today and tomorrow will have significant consequences, not only for America but for the people of a (hopefully) free Iraq. The so-called war "debate" does nothing to inform these momentous decisions, at least not as I see it. Regardless, the Left will repastinate this fallow ground because they simply can't help themselves when it comes to seeking political advantage. That the advantage they seek is founded on damned lies doesn't appear to register on their irony meter. So, by all means, let's waste some more time and effort re-establishing the facts. We can't not do it, but we can be pissed at the necessity of having to do so.