Saves al-Qaeda the trouble of having to publish yet another tape calling for the same thing.

[The insurgents in Iraq] are increasing in number and strength — so much so that reports point to the ultimate failure and defeat of the unlucky quartet of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz. Declaring this defeat is just a matter of time, depending partly on how much the American people know of the size of this tragedy. The sensible people realize that Bush does not have a plan to make his alleged victory in Iraq come true.

l-Qaeda's No. 1 said this. And so have the Donothingrats:

Al-Qaeda's No. 1 says Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsefeld is a failure. And so do the Demusefulidiot Party's leaders.

Al-Qaeda's No. 1 says our country is losing the war. And so do the Demoloserats.

Al-Qaeda's No. 1 says "Bush does not have a plan." And so do his "sensible people" in the Democrash-n-burnic Party.

Al-Qaeda's No. 1 says Secretary Rumsfeld's defeat too "is just a matter of time." And USA TODAY's sister publication Military Gannett Co. Times, like the Demobackstabberat Party elite, says that time is now.

USA TODAY writers — several of them at least — also write for a newspaper liberal-propagandizing waste of wood pulp which is "declaring this defeat" of Secretary Rumsfeld. What a lame excuse for a false, dirty-tricking October November Surprise.

Of course there's nothing new about the Demediaqrat Party, its newspaper confederates, and Osama bin Laden all being on the same side of one or more major issues affecting our national security.

Fortunately for America our Secretary of Defense, as he did on this year's anniversary of Operation Iraqi Freedom, contradicts everything the enemy and his aiders and comforters in the DeMSMogiveuprat Party have said:

The terrorists seem to recognize that they are losing in Iraq. I believe that history will show that to be the case.

Fortunately, history is not made up of daily headlines, blogs on Web sites or the latest sensational attack. History is a bigger picture, and it takes some time and perspective to measure accurately.

Consider that in three years Iraq has gone from enduring a brutal dictatorship to electing a provisional government to ratifying a new constitution written by Iraqis to electing a permanent government last December. In each of these elections, the number of voters participating has increased significantly — from 8.5 million in the January 2005 election to nearly 12 million in the December election — in defiance of terrorists' threats and attacks.

One of the most important developments over the past year has been the increasing participation of Iraq's Sunni community in the political process. In the volatile Anbar province, where Sunnis are an overwhelming majority, voter turnout grew from 2 percent in January to 86 percent in December. Sunni sheiks and religious leaders who previously had been sympathetic to the insurgency are today meeting with coalition representatives, encouraging Iraqis to join the security forces and waging what violent extremists such as Abu al-Zarqawi and his al-Qaeda followers recognize as a "large-scale war" against them.

The terrorists are determined to stoke sectarian tension and are attempting to spark a civil war. But despite the many acts of violence and provocation, the vast majority of Iraqis have shown that they want their country to remain whole and free of ethnic conflict. We saw this last month after the attack on the Shiite shrine in Samarra, when leaders of Iraq's various political parties and religious groups condemned the violence and called for calm.

Another significant transformation has been in the size, capability and responsibility of Iraqi security forces. And this is vitally important, because it is Iraqis, after all, who must build and secure their own nation.

Today, some 100 Iraqi army battalions of several hundred troops each are in the fight, and 49 control their own battle space. About 75 percent of all military operations in the country include Iraqi security forces, and nearly half of those are independently Iraqi-planned, Iraqi-conducted and Iraqi-led. Iraqi security forces have a greater ability than coalition troops to detect a foreign terrorist's accent, identify local suspects and use force without increasing a feeling of occupation. It was these Iraqi forces — not U.S. or coalition troops — that enforced curfews and contained the violence after the attack on the Golden Dome Shrine in Samarra. To be sure, violence of various stripes continues to slow Iraq's progress. But the coalition is doing everything possible to see this effort succeed and is making adjustments as appropriate.

The rationale for a free and democratic Iraq is as compelling today as it was three years ago. A free and stable Iraq will not attack its neighbors, will not conspire with terrorists, will not pay rewards to the families of suicide bombers and will not seek to kill Americans.

Though there are those who will never be convinced that the cause in Iraq is worth the costs, anyone looking realistically at the world today — at the terrorist threat we face — can come to only one conclusion: Now is the time for resolve, not retreat.

It's not our wartime defense secretary, but Defeatistic Party members in our Congress who must go.

	4:33 AM

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