The military had a strategy all along!

So says NR's Rich Lowry in today's Corner. He quotes David Ignatius of the Washington Post, who takes the military to task because it is "finally becoming adept at fighting a counterinsurgency war in Iraq," but should have "mastered" that skill before it started the war.

Lowry writes:

[Ignatius] argues that we finally have an effective counter-insurgency strategy in Iraq. A lot of people have written this lately, usually with the implicit suggestion that this is some sudden development, that out of nowhere these fairly effective Iraqi troops are appearing and contributing to a better counter-insurgency effort. But the strategy that is now beginning to bear fruit has been in place for a long time, as anyone would know who actually listened to what the administration was saying over the last year or more. All during the long, long period that the administration was scored for having no strategy in Iraq (a charge, I regret to say, echoed in this very Corner), the strategy that is now being recognized was in place. It just took time to take hold. Apparently few people anymore have enough patience to realize some things take time.

The whole thing -- as well as Ignatius' column -- is worth a read.