Where there is the will there is a way

Backing up the point which I made yesterday today's New York Times is reporting that the forces of the legitimate Somali government have re-taken the capital city:

NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec. 28 — Just hours after Islamist fighters abandoned Mogadishu, the capital from which they ruled much of Somalia, thousands of troops of the transitional government marched into the city on Thursday in a stunning reversal of fortune.

The government soldiers and the Ethiopian infantrymen who have been backing them poured in from the outskirts, residents said. The only gunshots fired were long celebratory bursts into the air.

In a country with such a troubled recent history, including famine, anarchy, isolation and war, a potentially viable government has suddenly emerged.

In a matter of five days, the internationally recognized government, a fledging authority that had been so weak it was marooned in a provincial market town, captured the formidable capital and most of Somalia — with more than a little help from Ethiopia.

As I said yesterday, the Ethiopian government had the means to defeat the Islamofascists and the will to do so.

The American military in Iraq has vastly superior means to the Ethiopians, however we lack the will to use them. Our enemies, not just Islamists but bad guys the world over, think that we will ultimately be defeated because of our unwillingness to get our hands dirty.

If the president and congress want to win in Iraq then let them kick out the reporters, pardon every serviceman accused of a "war crime" who was just doing his job, like the Marines in Haditha, and tell the men on the ground over there to do what needs doing, that their government has their back.

Let the Democrats echo this message even more strongly than Mr. Bush and you will see the "insurgency" in Iraq melt away like a snowball in a Baghdad summer.