This article first appeared in Aviation Week's Ares weblog.

A panel of retired Army generals and think tank academics tells a House Armed Services subcommittee that the surge of U.S. troops in Iraq appears to be drastically reducing violence.

"The situation in Iraq has changed like night and day," says retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey, a critic of the Bush administration's Iraq strategy who just got back from a trip there last month.

The subcommittee's chairman, Rep. Vic Snyder (D-Ark.), says he and the panel's senior Republican, Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) were frustrated last year by the tone of the discussion about the war. "The political debate on the U.S. strategy for Iraq had too often been framed by two extreme positions: "precipitous withdrawal" or "stay the course" indefinitely,"' he says.While the subcommittee's aim is to look to the future, Snyder concedes " Presidential election years are not necessarily the best time to debate the nuances of significant issues."

That remark may explain -- in part -- why House Democrats decided not to challenge President Bush to a constitutional showdown over his pocket veto of the Fiscal 2008 defense authorization bill.

Instead, they opted to change the language the White House objected to -- and move on. The Senate gets the bill when it returns from its holiday break Jan. 22.