If only the jihadists had as much confidence in their mission as the Democrats do! Leading Democrats, from Biden to John Effin Kerry to Howard Dean, Ted Kennedy and a host of others, have been saying that Iraq is a lost cause, that we cannot win, that we need to set timetables for withdrawal, etc.

Even these repeated pep talks have not been able to bolster the spirits of the jihadists in Iraq. Captain Ed has the story,

CENTCOM announced today that they had captured al-Qaeda correspondence in Iraq that discusses the state of the insurgency, especially around Baghdad but also around the entire country. Far from optimistic, the documents captured in an April 16th raid reveal frustration and desperation, as the terrorists acknowledge the superior position of American and free Iraqi forces and their ability to quickly adapt to new tactics.

Let’s compare and contrast shall we…

John Kerry

Once again, we are imprisoned in a failed policy. And once again we are being told that admitting mistakes, not the mistakes themselves, will provide our enemies with an intolerable propaganda victory.

The war in Vietnam and the war in Iraq are now converging in too many tragic respects. As in Vietnam, we engaged militarily in Iraq based on official deception â?¦ and as in Vietnam, we have stayed and fought and died even though it is time for us to go.

Because of the experience we had in Vietnam and (former Secretary of State) Colin Powell, whom I trusted, I trusted the administration on that, and it was an enormous error,â? he said. â??But I cannot stand idly by and compound that mistake by not speaking out when I see things the way they are.

Despondent Jihadist

Thus, what is fixed in the minds of the Shiite and Sunni population is that the Shiites are stronger in Baghdad and closer to controlling it while the mujahidin (who represent the backbone of the Sunni people) are not considered more than a daily annoyance to the Shiite government.

The only power the mujahidin have is what they have already demonstrated in hunting down drifted patrols and taking sniper shots at those patrol members who stray far from their patrols, or planting booby traps among the citizens and hiding among them in the hope that the explosions will injure an American or members of the government. In other words, these activities could be understood as hitting the scared and the hiding ones, which is an image that requires a concerted effort to change, as well as Allahâ??s wisdom.

Nancy Pelosi

And in the course of a year and a half, the circumstances on the ground are not improved, then we have to consider other options. But I say again, the American people, and especially our troops, deserve a better plan to get out than they had getting in.

Despondent Jihadist

There is a clear absence of organization among the groups of the brothers in Baghdad, whether at the leadership level in Baghdad, the brigade leaders, or their groups therein. Coordination among them is very difficult, which appears clearly when the group undertake a join[t] operations.

The policy followed by the brothers in Baghdad is a media oriented policy without a clear comprehensive plan to capture an area or an enemy center.

Howard Dean

the “idea that we’re going to win the war in Iraq is an idea which is just plain wrong

“I’ve seen this before in my life. This is the same situation we had in Vietnam. Everybody then kept saying, ‘just another year, just stay the course, we’ll have a victory.’ Well, we didn’t have a victory, and this policy cost the lives of an additional 25,000 troops because we were too stubborn to recognize what was happening.”

Despondent Jihadist

At the same time, the Americans and the Government were able to absorb our painful blows, sustain them, compensate their losses with new replacements, and follow strategic plans which allowed them in the past few years to take control of Baghdad as well as other areas one after the other. That is why every year is worse than the previous year as far as the Mujahidinâ??s control and influence over Baghdad.

Joe Biden

It is increasingly clear that President Bush does not have a strategy for victory in Iraq. Rather, he hopes to prevent defeat and pass the problem along to his successor.

Despondent Jihdist

The National Guard status is frequently raised and whether they belong to the Sunnis or Shiites. Too much talk is around whether we belong to them or not, or should we strike and kill their men or not?

It is believed that this matter serves the Americans very well. I believe that the Committee and the Party are pushing this issue because they want to have an influence, similar to the Mujahidinâ??s. When and if a Sunni units from the National Guard are formed, and begin to compete with the mujahidin and squeeze them, we will have a problem; we either let them go beyond the limits or fight them and risk inciting the Sunnis against us through the Partyâ??s and the Committeeâ??s channels.

I believe that we should not allow this situation to exist at all, and we should bury it before it surfaces and reject any suggestion to that effect.

Captain Ed summarizes what we found in these documents,

This plaintive assessment shows how weakened Zarqawi has become at the hands of the Americans. Between the three commands in the Baghdad area, AQ has a grand total of 110 mujahid, admittedly no match for the thousands of American troops in Baghdad and the thousands of Iraqi troops we are training and putting into play. No wonder Zarqawi has given up on suicide missions — he has almost nothing left.

This document shows that we have just about triumphed over the AQ network in Iraq, and AQ knows it. Hopefully, the American media might finally start reporting it.

And hopefully the American people start listening to the Democrats to see how clueless they truly are on the most important issue of our time.