Gov. Sonny Perdue, often criticized in these pages through the years, gets a salute today for his surprise visit to Georgia National Guard troops in Iraq.

It was his second such surprise visit, the first coming back in 2005.

Iraq is still a war zone, to be sure, but is also a far safer place than it was then, thanks to the fortitude of a president (George W. Bush) willing to do the politically unpopular thing and strongly reinforce our war effort there in 2007; and thanks to the bravery of the uniformed men and women of our country (and to an increasing number of similarly-minded Iraqis). The progress purchased by those sacrifices is easily apparent, the governor noted during a conference call to reporters on Tuesday.

"The violence has gone down significantly," he said. "You see people driving around, lights are on in the shops and there's a sense of normalcy that ... is very apparent."

Meanwhile, the morale of the Georgians stationed there is high, he said.

"The spirit and morale of our troops is palpable," Perdue said. "They feel like there is light at the end of the tunnel and they feel like they've made a difference."

Georgia's 48th Infantry Brigade now is stationed in Afghanistan, and the governor dropped strong hints that he was headed to visit it next. In fact, he may well be there by the time you are reading this.

The governor's trip coincided with Veterans Day, appropriately enough. So did the latest meeting of President Obama's study group about what to do about Afghanistan: whether to follow the recommendation of Gen. Stanley McChrystal and adapt a "surge"-type strategy for that country, or whether to adopt a half-way, "Surge-Lite" strategy that would kick the can down the road, getting us no nearer victory and hopefully no closer to defeat; or whether to tuck tail and withdraw completely, which is what many of the loudest voices on the political left are clamoring for.

We would hope this president shows the same spine that his predecessor did when it came to choose between losing a war and winning it - and put in place a new Surge.