Roll Call reports that our top military commander in Iraq will make a rare visit to Capitol Hill next week, but House majority leaders initially declined the Defense Department’s offer of a members-only closed-door briefing with Army Gen. David Petraeus.

Some might recall that it was only quite recently when these same House leaders travelled several thousand miles to talk with President al-Assad of Syria, a state sponsor of terrorism according to both the Bush and Clinton administrations. But when it comes to travelling eight feet across the hall to meet with the commander of our own soldiers, an entirely different attitude emerges.

For those who have been wondering why liberals, frequently led by the ACLU, have opposed any serious effort to obtain intelligence from terrorists captured in Iraq and elsewhere — and have instead filed one lawsuit after the next designed to thwart even moderate measures to persuade detainees to talk — the answer is at hand. Liberals are invested in failure — failure in Iraq, and, for some, failure across the globe. Hence al-Assad is treated like a statesman while General Patraeus is treated like a stomach ache.

This is not the way it used to be. Harry Truman, JFK and Hubert Humphrey were liberals, but they knew America had enemies and were prepared to confront them, with force when necessary. It’s woeful, and dangerous, that our current liberal leaders have forgotten so much their predecessors knew.