One of their favorite retired Generals, Major General John Batiste, who appeared in an ad for the anti-war Vote Vets website, and who had an op/ed published on the liberal anti-war website Think Progress in August in which he called for the US to "begin a responsible and deliberate redeployment from Iraq," has apparently changed his tune.

He, along with Vets for Freedom executive director Lt. Pete Hegseth had an opinion piece published in Saturday's Washington Post (h/t: Jim Addison) in which they, together, call Iraq the "central" fight in the war on terror, discuss what steps they believe need to be taken in order for us to win the war on terror, and chastize Congress for not being able to move past their partisan differences in order to fund our troops. The key part of the piece which will cause the Nutroots heads to explode:

Second, whether or not we like it, Iraq is central to that fight. We cannot walk away from our strategic interests in the region. Iraq cannot become a staging ground for Islamic extremism or be dominated by other powers in the region, such as Iran and Syria. A premature or precipitous withdrawal from Iraq, without the requisite stability and security, is likely to cause the violence there -- which has decreased substantially but is still present -- to cascade into an even larger humanitarian crisis.

Third, the counterinsurgency campaign led by Gen. David Petraeus is the correct approach in Iraq. It is showing promise of success and, if continued, will provide the Iraqi government the opportunities it desperately needs to stabilize its country. Ultimately, however, these military gains must be cemented with regional and global diplomacy, political reconciliation, and economic recovery -- tools yet sufficiently utilized. Today's tactical gains in Iraq -- while a necessary pre-condition for political reconciliation -- will crumble without a deliberate and comprehensive strategy.

Make sure to read the whole thing.

I'm sure we'll be hearing soon about how Maj. Gen. Batiste "never really was" a war crtic in the first place. After all, that was the big excuse the far tried to use this past summer when critics of the Iraq war started writing about how things were changing for the better in Iraq and how the war was/is winnable.

Stay tuned ...

Cross-posted from the SisterToldjah blog.