Since the mainstream press won't report the goings on in Iraq now that the picture isn't as bleak as it once was, comes this op-ed piece from the New York Post:
June 9, 2008 -- AMERICA has won, or is about to win, the Iraq war.
The latest proof came last month, as the Iraqi army - just a few months ago the target of scorn and abuse from Democratic politicians and journalists - forcefully reoccupied three cities that had served as key insurgency bases (Basra, Sadr City and Mosul).
Sunnis and Shias alike applauded as their nation's army compelled insurgent militias to lay down their arms. The country's leading opposition newspaper, Azzaman, led the applause for the move into Mosul - a sign that national reconciliation in Iraq is under way and probably irreversible.
US combat deaths in May also were down to 20, the lowest monthly total since February 2004. The toll for May 2007 was 121.
In a Washington Post interview, CIA Director Michael Hayden said we're witnessing the "near strategic defeat of al Qaeda in Iraq."
The Bush administration has taken heaps of abuse for its Iraq policy, including its decision to launch the "surge" last December. Now the strategy, which our nation's "best and brightest" regularly dismissed as a failure, has cleared the way for the establishment of a secure democracy in Iraq and a lasting peace.
It would be foolish to pop open the victory champagne yet. The truce between the Shia and Sunni in Iraq remains fragile; al Qaeda may well launch one more last-ditch offensive there (a la Tet 1968), in order to discourage the US and/or Iraq publics on the eve of the elections.
Meanwhile, we're still fighting a vicious insurgency in Afghanistan, and have yet to root out the al Qaeda remnants of along the Afghan-Pakistan border. And the continued threat of home-grown terror cells keeps European governments nervous.
In wars, however, trends have their own momentum. And the trend is running away from al Qaeda and its jihadist allies - not only in Iraq but also across the Middle East.
According to Hayden, al Qaeda faces a similar strategic debacle in Saudi Arabia.
And al Qaeda's fugitive leadership is learning that its former safe haven along the Afghan-Pakistan border is no longer so safe. Thanks to cooperation with Pakistan's new government, unmanned US Predator drones recently killed two top al Qaeda leaders there.
Once Gen. David Petraeus is confirmed as commander of US forces in the Middle East in July, he'll be able to apply the same strategy for victory learned in the Iraq surge to the war in Afghanistan.
In short, the larger War on Terror may be reaching a tipping point similar to that of the Iraq war.
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Politics, it seems to me, all too long, has been concerned with right or left instead of right or wrong. ~Richard Armour
Location: land of the Lilliputians, In the state of insanity
Posts: 24,185
RE: 'Eat crow, Iraq war skeptics'
As for pulling out, we have yet to pull out of Korea, Germany, Veitnam, etc. etc. We will be there for a long time. Mass troop withdraw might occure, but I hope only after the region is more stable. And stable due to the Iraqie government.
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kaafir mushrik
Unintended consequences and God have one thing in common: Liberals don’t believe in either of them.
So what will the headlinesread should a major draw down occur say in September and the total number of troops fall below 100K?
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John Adams “The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.”
Ronald Reagan: 'Everybody that is for abortion has already been born'
"I never said I was worth it. I only said I wouldn't do it for less " William F. Buckley Jr.
Hardly charlie. This isn't the fist opinion piece to come out and it follows on the news regarding the reality of the situation.
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John Adams “The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.”
Ronald Reagan: 'Everybody that is for abortion has already been born'
"I never said I was worth it. I only said I wouldn't do it for less " William F. Buckley Jr.
Given your oft-stated disdain with the Iraqi war, I'm going to assume that you weren't trying to spell "nice," but "naive." If I'm wrong, I apologize. If I'm not, perhaps you could explain to us why it is so? I saw nothing in there that was factually inaccurate, and there's no denying that the picture in Iraq right now has been improving in recent months and is currently much brighter than it was, say, a year ago.
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Politics, it seems to me, all too long, has been concerned with right or left instead of right or wrong. ~Richard Armour
'Eat crow, Iraq war skeptics'
