Hitchens wonders, does the left want to lose in Iraq?

My good man, perish the thought.

[I]t nonetheless does begin to look as if Iraqis may in fact have started to recover command over their own destiny, and also as if America may have helped them to do so. The surge is only a part of this story. Quite obviously, if the Sunnis of Anbar Province had not of their own volition turned on the hideous forces of al-Qaida, then no amount of extra troops could have made the difference. But some combination of the two things appears to have altered the chemistry, and not just in that province, and all the reporters and soldiers I can get hold of (who include some direly skeptical people in both categories) seem agreed on one thing: The forces of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi stink in the nostrils of the Arab world, and have been—here I borrow some words of Thomas Paine—”in point of generalship … outwitted, and in point of fortitude outdone.” Bin Ladenism in Iraq has been dealt a stinging defeat. Surely this is something to celebrate…

I am not at all certain that any of this apparently good news is really genuine or will be really lasting. However, I am quite sure both that it could be true and that it would be wonderful if it were to be true. What worries me about the reaction of liberals and Democrats is not the skepticism, which is pardonable, but the dank and sinister impression they give that the worse the tidings, the better they would be pleased. The latter mentality isn’t pardonable and ought not to be pardoned, either.

You can’t have a Teachable Moment about the perils of imperialism and American hubris unless the facts cooperate. Further to which, see this eyebrow-raiser from AFP, which has itself taken a decidedly neocon bent of late.

Update: The question Hitch should have asked is why the left might still want to lose now when the facts have cooperated with them for the past four years. Their fear seems to be that success in Iraq might make adventurism fashionable for foreign policy. If so, that’s absurd; America’s lost too much blood and treasure in Iraq, and Bush has retreated too far from his democracy exportation plan, to make neoconservatism palatable going forward, especially vis-a-vis countries like Iran and Pakistan that would be much tougher nuts to crack than even Iraq was. Which is to say, why not root for victory at this point? The left has won the foreign policy debate. Why not hope America wins the war too?