Vets for Freedom continues their efforts to push for a successful conclusion to the war in Iraq with their latest ad, “Some in Washington”. The ad produces quotes from notables such as Harry Reid, Barack Obama, and Obama’s latest BFF and Iraq tripmate Chuck Hagel all declaring the surge a failure before it even started and the war lost. The veterans then introduce headlines from this year proclaiming how wrong these “leaders” turned out to be:

At the same time, Centcom has released its latest unclassified report on security trends — and they continue to show improvement. The number of attacks have declined to the lowest per-week level since March 2004, and guess when the trend started? Coincidentally, when General Petraeus took command and got his additional surge troops:

See that dramatic decline starting in May 2007?  The dramatic slope of the decline shows the effectiveness of the surge and the new counterinsurgency efforts of Petraeus.  Some claim that the real reason for the improvements was the Anbar Awakening movement that formed in autumn 2006, but that didn’t result in any immediate improvement.  As this chart shows, violence increased to a crescendo in May 2007 when American troops began aggressively attacking terrorist strongholds.

But what of sectarian violence?  Critics warn that Iraq will melt down in Shi’a-Sunni hatred and violence.  In fact, that has all but disappeared entirely, even in multisectarian Baghdad.

The red line shows sectarian deaths for all of Iraq, and the blue specific to Baghdad.  As we can see, most of the sectarian violence in Iraq has been limited to Baghdad anyway.  And when did those numbers begin their dramatic decline?  When Petraeus took command and began implementing a new security plan for the capital as well as one for the nation as a whole.

Obama, Hagel, Reid, and many others clearly got the war wrong.  John McCain got it right.  Vets for Freedom — men and women who have been there and seen victory within our grasp — want the US to finish the job this time.