Crossposted from Conservative Thoughts

Here’s something worth reading! An American picked by a MSM publication, IBD picks General Petraeus for Man of the Year over Times’ selection of Vladimir Putin as Person of the Year.

By INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY

The newsweekly’s [Time Magazine] 2007 honor went to the Russian leader because of Putin’s “extraordinary feat of leadership in taking a country that was in chaos and bringing it stability,” according to Managing Editor Richard Stengel.

If returning a nation said to be on the road to democracy to its militaristic and autocratic past is a criterion, Putin is certainly a valid candidate. He has presided over Russia’s rise from a shattered remnant of the Soviet Union to a player on the world stage flush with oil revenue and a military returned from the dead.

Our preference is not for tyrants, but for those who defeat them. We prefer those who advance the causes of peace and democracy and who make the world freer and safer.

In other words, we prefer Petraeus, especially by Stengel’s criteria. Petraeus has indeed turned in an “extraordinary feat of leadership” by taking Iraq, another country in chaos, and bringing it more than stability. He has brought it true democracy from the grass roots up, and he’s done it by transforming a country full of Shiites, Kurds and Sunnis into a nation of Iraqis.

When Petraeus testified before Congress in September on the progress of the surge he planned and was chosen to execute, most refused to believe his realistic but optimistic report. Those who equated Iraq with the Vietnam “quagmire” thought we were being told again about the light at the end of the tunnel.

A few short months later, even Rep. John Murtha, one of the war’s loudest critics, concedes “the surge is working.” The Iraqi people think so too. Millions who fled are now returning in droves to rebuild their lives, open businesses and raise children in a free and democratic Iraq.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had proclaimed the war to be “lost.” And despite the drafting of a constitution and the election of a government, Baghdad had yet to assert control or leadership of a country consumed with sectarian and jihadist violence.Enter Petraeus, who changed the playbook at halftime. No longer would coalition forces leave their camps, beat up the jihadists and return to base. Now they’d go in greater numbers into the provinces and no longer win and leave, but “clear and hold.”

They’d convince Iraqis they weren’t going anywhere and neither was America. And under that umbrella of security, remarkable things began to happen. Sunnis and Shiites realized the enemy was not the Americans or each other. It was jihadists who brought nothing but violence, tyranny and oppression.

The uniting of Sunnis and Shiites against al-Qaida’s mindless barbarism, coupled with a U.S. surge where troops came and this time stayed, have turned the tide in our favor. In Anbar, once said to be hopelessly lost, tribesman do most of the policing, as 70,000 tribal fighters assist coalition forces inside Baghdad and out.

Violence and casualties, civilian and military, are down dramatically. Iraqis can now stroll the streets of Baghdad even at night, cruising the shops and stopping at cafes in increased safety.

The war is not over, but it is no longer “lost.” Al-Qaida in Iraq is on the run, wondering what hit them. Terrorism has suffered a major defeat. Gen. David Petraeus — our Person of the Year.