John Murtha: “I Think The Surge Is Working”

It must be chilly in hell tonight.

“I think the ’surge’ is working,” the Democrat said in a videoconference from his Johnstown office, describing the president’s decision to commit more than 20,000 additional combat troops this year. But the Iraqis “have got to take care of themselves.”
Violence has dropped significantly in recent months, but Mr. Murtha said he was most encouraged by changes in the once-volatile Anbar province, where locals have started working closely with U.S. forces to isolate insurgents linked to Al Qaeda…
Mr. Murtha’s four day-trip took him to a Thanksgiving dinner with troops in Kuwait last Thursday, and he then made stops in Iraq, Turkey and Belgium.

Even though he qualifies the statement with the old “they need to make more political progress” thing (something pretty much everyone agrees on anyway), I think this is the left’s first stab at a new tact for ending the war. I’m calling it the “let’s declare victory and bring the troops home” strategy.
Of course, simply claiming we’ve won and ending the mission in Iraq prematurely is just as irresponsible as declaring defeat and retreating, but it’s a dangerous new angle as certain weak-kneed Republicans who just want the war issue to go away may be tempted to get on board.
If that’s even really what this is. But at the very least, at least Murtha is seeing the light in Iraq now even if it is somewhat grudgingly. And just to give you an idea of how much of a flip-flop this is for Murtha, here’s some video of him talking previous of progress in Iraq being an “illusion:”