IRAQ WAR OVER, GOOD GUYS WIN

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en days ago, one of the very best correspondents working in Iraq -- blogger Michael Yon -- telephoned his friend Glenn Reynolds with a security update from Baghdad. Michael has truly seen it all over there (I've linked to his work quite often during this blog's lifetime), but it seems there won't be much more for him to do in Saddam's former playground. "The war is over and we won."

"There's nothing going on. I'm with the 10th Mountain Division, and about half of the guys I'm with haven't fired their weapons on this tour* and they've been here eight months. And the place we're at, South Baghdad, used to be one of the worst places in Iraq. And now there's nothing going on. I've been walking my feet off and haven't seen anything. I've been asking Iraqis, 'do you think the violence will kick up again,' but even the Iraqi journalists are sounding optimistic now and they're usually dour."

* In an emailed correction, he says NONE of the 10th MD have fired weapons in combat during this tour; around half of them are Iraq and/or Afghanistan combat veterans.

There is of course still some terrorist violence here and there, but nothing that constitutes a threat to the progress achieved. Training by the US troops has succeeded in the establishment of an Iraqi Army and an Iraqi National Police which are well thought of by the population, says Michael. A couple of years ago, the police were not trusted by the people, but even that has now changed.

More Americans were shot to death over the summer in Chicago than were killed during the same period in Iraq, where casualties are now the lowest since 2003. Michael Yon will now be focusing on Afghanistan, where much work remains to be done. Here's his latest Happy Ending story from Iraq.

I've read many other accounts from people who are very familiar with Iraq since 2003, and without exception they are amazed at the changes they see today. Here's a graphic illustration:



The scenes were recorded at the same location in the al Doura district of Baghdad. Even more remarkable, the full-of-life scene was recorded at night.

The 2007 video was shot April 29, 2007 with the 1/4 Cav., 4th IBCT.

The 2008 video was shot October 26, 2008 with the 7/10 Cav. 1st IBCT.

Before the "Surge" and after. Some people *cough*harryreid*cough* proclaimed defeat before it started. Others *cough*obama*cough* said the reinforcement could never work, while still others *cough*toomanytomention*cough* declared Gen. David Petraeus a traitor, and took out a NYT full page ad to say so.

So, no thanks to any of them, the courage and perseverance of the majority of the Iraqi people has paid off. Sure, Moqtada can still put a few thousand supporters into the streets for a Code Pink protest, but he's irrelevant now. And al Qaeda in Iraq is now even more irrelevant -- the good citizens of Iraq want nothing to do with the vile thugs.

And if the next president of the US had had his way, all American forces would have been completely out of the country eight months ago. The above second scene at al Doura district would still remain a distant hope for life-loving Iraqis. Had that been the case, a video recorded less than a month ago would likely have looked much worse than the one eighteen months earlier.

"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty."

- President John F. Kennedy

President Bush's detractors will never get that, and there's no point in waiting for them to get it. He knew what needed to be done, and he saw it through to success. History will record that, whether or not the current "media" sees fit to acknowledge it.
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Labels: Iraq, USA

- posted by Agam @ 12:32 PM 0 comments

 
SURGE SKEPTIC CORDESMAN: 'DEFEAT OF AL QAEDA VERY CLEAR'

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nthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies was a prominent (and celebrated by the left) skeptic of the Bush Administration's surge of additional forces into Iraq last year. He has made nine fact finding trips to Iraq on behalf of CSIS, and has just returned from a tour throughout the country with a decidedly more upbeat analysis.

"The defeat of al Qaeda is a very clear, very striking result."

AllahPundit has more on Cordesman's change of heart. Cordesman also appeared last night (my time) on Washington Journal, and his opening overview of the situations in both Iraq and Afghanistan are worth listening to.

I wish I'd been able to capture his delicious smackdown of one particularly extreme moonbat caller, but at 8pm the satellite switches from C-SPAN back to VOA in Armenian, so I only got 8 minutes of this (and watched the rest on the web). The whole thing is on the Washington Journal page at C-SPAN.



UPDATE: Gateway Pundit covers the Iraqis' celebration of the surge anniversary.

Labels: Iraq, Terrorism

- posted by Agam @ 12:42 PM 0 comments

 
AL QAEDA IN IRAQ 'ON ITS HEELS'

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bout three months ago, coalition forces in Iraq recovered two very interesting documents, both believed to have been written by senior al Qaeda leaders. One takes the form of a 16 page diary, although its author, an al Qaeda "Emir" named Abu Tariq, calls it his "will." The other is a 39 page letter written by a high ranking but unidentified "Emir," and recovered in a raid near Samarra.

Obviously, snapshots of al Qaeda's problems in two areas of the country cannot tell the entire story. But coupled with reports of AQ fighters leaving the country, some of their commanders absconding with the payroll, and their undeniably diminished ability to maintain previous levels of atrocities, something is clearly going on.

A translated copy of the diary/will can be downloaded from here. Some name redactions have been made, for which I substitute [cryptic epithets] where appropriate. An opening section (not included here) details their used car jihad -- buying and selling of vehicles to each other. "[%#$@] still owes us $10,000..." and so on. This was recovered south of Balad.

[15 Oct. 2007]

This is My Will:
I am Abu-Tariq, Emir of Al-Layin and al-Mashahdah Sector.
There were almost 600 fighters in our Sector before the Tribes changed course 360 degrees under the influence of the so-called Islamic Army (Deserter of Jihad)...

This dopey "Emir" isn't the sharpest scimitar in the armoury. The tribes "changed course 360 degrees"..??

... but things started getting worse ever since, and as a result of that the number of fighters dropped down to 20 or less...

From nearly 600 fighters, he's down to less than 20. For a guy who commanded five battalions, that's got to hurt. Here's how he assesses two of his battalions. "Al-Sahwah" refers to the Awakening which first took hold among the tribes of Anbar, and the movement is now spreading throughout the country.

[28 Oct. 2007]
Battalion of Laylat al-Qadr Martyrs:
Its group Emir called [%$@#!^&] (Detained), and the number of fighters in this Battalion were 200. All of them were very well equipped with weapons and 37 vehicles and they did a lot of good activities against the invaders and its followers, but in the meantime were are few fighters left who are actually fighting and some were killed and some arrested but the majority betrayed us and joined al-Sahwah. This battalion was one of the first battalions whose number of fighters was tarnished after Abu-Haydar al-Ansari Battalion, and the number of fighters is now only ten.

Battalion of Abu-Haydar al-Ansari: The Emir of this battalion [||||||] was the first renegade in this group. He ran away one month before the al-Sahwah movement started in our sector and we still do not know where he is hiding. It is no wonder that most of the information we got from him was deception and lies. There were 300 fighters in the battalion equipped with good weapons and 17 vehicles, and since [the Emir] deserted us the number of fighters dropped down to 16 and then to two; one of whom was arrested [Abu #%!@& al-*&!^#$@] and the second one was injured [Abu &*!@%#$] and the rest joined the al-Sahwah groups.

Sounds like things are tough out there now for jihad pimps.

The longer document recovered from an al Qaeda base in the Samarra area hasn't been released yet, that I could find. But it's discussed in this article with some quotes, and also here.

"The renegades and Americans started launching their attacks to destroy us. We lost cities, and afterwards villages, and the desert became a dangerous refuge. We got away from people and found ourselves in a wasteland desert."

Poor mujahideen, lost in a desert wasteland where nobody loves them. Look at those sad jihadi eyes up there.

From the Times (not NY, of course):

"We helped them to unite against us . . . The Americans and the apostates launched their campaigns against us and we found ourselves in a circle not being able to move, organise or conduct our operations."

I'm really impressed with that touch of self criticism. "We helped them to unite against us." Zawahiri was warning the Zarkman about exactly that, long before Zark was sent to meet his 72 raisins. Did "al Qaeda (which has nothing to do with Iraq) in Iraq (which has nothing to do with al Qaeda)" listen? Nooooooo.....

"The Islamic State of Iraq [al-Qaeda] is faced with an extraordinary crisis, especially in al-Anbar province. Al-Qaeda’s expulsion from Anbar created weakness and psychological defeat. This also created panic, fear and the unwillingness to fight.

"The morale of the fighters went down and they wanted to be transferred to administrative positions rather than be fighters. There was a total collapse in the security structure of the organisation."

Lots of them are begging to go home, but some will probably try to regroup outside the country and re-enter when conditions change. Like say for instance, next January when President Messiah fulfills his pledge to "end this war now!"

But at least until then there will be no betrayal of that country, no turning away to leave them to a grisly fate. Undoubtedly, the head loppers who turn retarded women into human bombs will come up with more such events between now and then, as far as they are able. Those who refuse to consider the consequences, if "troops out now!" comes to pass eleven months hence, had better start considering it soon.

Last Friday night I was lucky to catch the last half of President Bush's speech to CPAC, as it was carried in full on the AP satellite feed (CNN - International at least - couldn't be bothered with it). I couldn't find it online either, although C-SPAN should have had it. Then I was doubly lucky on Monday, when it was rebroadcast on the American Embassy Network. So I captured it, and pulled out the sections related to Iraq, Afghanistan, the struggle against violent political Islamist jihad, protecting and spreading freedom, and all that stuff hardly anybody in legacy media cares to hear about.

Here you go. It's a shame that when he talks like this, few people get a chance to hear it -- apart from whatever brief sound bite or slight gaffe can be taken out of context for the network news. The full transcript is here.

Advance warning to those sadly afflicted with BDS -- do not watch right to the end of second reel (it's a 2 video playlist). The danger of spontaneous combustion cannot be ruled out.

Labels: Iraq, Terrorism

- posted by Agam @ 2:56 PM 0 comments

 
THANKS AND PRAISE

Michael Yon writes, "I photographed men and women, both Christians and Muslims, placing a cross atop the St. John’s Church in Baghdad. They had taken the cross from storage and a man washed it before carrying it up to the dome." Photo: Michael Yon

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ith Osama bin Laden all but admitting that his forces have lost the war for Iraq, it's nice to see Iraqi freedom lovers firmly staking their claim to the future. This photo was taken by Michael Yon, who in my view is the best journalist working in Iraq today.

While Harry Reid (and others) have loudly declared American defeat in Iraq and the pop media hammers on each and every "grim milestone" it can find, events in recent months have been moving in the other direction. I sincerely hope this photo -- which, if there's any justice in journalism circles, would be Pullitzer prize material -- will be picked up by news agencies and shown widely in print and on television news. Such that Reid, Murtha and the other hard-nosed, loudmouthed defeatists will not be able to avoid seeing it.

Michael writes:

A Muslim man had invited the American soldiers from “Chosen” Company 2-12 Cavalry to the church, where I videotaped as Muslims and Christians worked and rejoiced at the reopening of St John’s, an occasion all viewed as a sign of hope.

The Iraqis asked me to convey a message of thanks to the American people. ” Thank you, thank you,” the people were saying. One man said, “Thank you for peace.” Another man, a Muslim, said “All the people, all the people in Iraq, Muslim and Christian, is brother.” The men and women were holding bells, and for the first time in memory freedom rang over the ravaged land between two rivers.

He has video of the occasion on the way, so check back on his site for that.

Michael is also offering the photograph to any media outlet for free, for a limited time. Contact him through his website.

Labels: Iraq

- posted by Agam @ 11:05 AM 0 comments