And no, it was not Joe Lieberman, it was US Congressman Donnelly who is not afraid to be objective and provide for some reasonable optimism given the blatant trend lines in Iraq:

U.S. Rep. Joe Donnelly returned from a second trip to Iraq in five months encouraged that the mission there is going better and that by 2009 the U.S. military’s role could be primarily as trainers and advisers.

“I feel we’ve made progress, and the other part is I feel we can see an end game in sight,” Donnelly, D-Ind., told reporters on a conference call Tuesday from Washington. “It isn’t we just keep plugging away in the hopes something will turn out right. Gen. (David) Petraeus is working a plan and we seem to be heading toward a place where the Iraqis can be self-sustaining and we’ll have a smaller presence in the background.”

Donnelly’s findings were in stark contrast to his visit to Iraq last July, when he said the only positive thing that happened in that country since the beginning of the war in March 2003 was the ouster of Saddam Hussein.

Donnelly is apparently well aware that any chance of stability and success in Iraq would be destroyed with a panic-driven effort by Dems to run from Iraq before they get plastered for their defeatist desires in 2008 elections. When it comes down to it the world and America would be a lot better off (and with a lot fewer dead and maimed people) if the dems took their lumps instead of the Iraqis being thrown to the wolves. And when it comes time to vote in 2008 that stark choice will be on the minds of a lot of voters. Why risk a return to the violence and upheaval in Iraq by pulling a Democrat lever? That will be the top question on voters’ minds.