That, my friends, is a leader

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/014/658dwgrn.asp?pg=1

'The president was in a weak and lonely position. After Republicans lost the Senate and House in the midterm election on November 7 [2006], nearly 200 members of Congress had met with him at the White House, mostly to grouse about Iraq. Democrats urged him to begin withdrawing troops, in effect accepting defeat. Many of the Republicans were panicky and blamed Bush and the Iraq war for the Democratic landslide. They feared the 2008 election would bring worse losses. They wanted out of Iraq too....'

'...[When] the Pentagon said one or two more Army brigades would suffice, the White House consulted General David Petraeus, whose selection as the new commander in Iraq had yet to be made public. Petraeus said he'd need a minimum of five and that's what he got. "I decided to go robust," Bush said. A senior adviser added: "If you're going to be a bear, be a grizzly." For an unpopular president facing a Democratic Congress ferociously opposed to the war in Iraq, it was a risky and defiant decision. Now, a year later, it's clear the surge has been a success. Violence is down, Baghdad mostly pacified, many Sunni leaders have abandoned their insurgency, and Al Qaeda in Iraq has been crushed (though not eliminated).'

I'm going to predict that when history looks back on George W Bush and Anthony Blair, they will be seen as excellent, clear-headed, forceful leaders who took a courageous moral stand. And that they were opposed by the least moral, least insightful, least honest and most pathetic dwarves that democracy has so far churned out. "Leave the Iraqi people to die, we don't care if they all die, as long as not one more of our children dies in Iraq". Utterly squalid and depraved.