| Submit your comments on this article |
| Iraq |
| Moving Forward in Iraq |
| 2007-07-11 |
| The "surge" is working. Will Washington allow the current progress to continue? BY KIMBERLY KAGAN ... Today, Iraq is a different place from what it was six months ago. U.S. and Iraqi forces began their counterinsurgency campaign in Baghdad in February. They moved into the neighborhoods and worked side-by-side with Baghdadis. As a result, sectarian violence is down. The counterinsurgency strategy has dramatically decreased Shiite death squad activity in the capital. Furthermore, U.S. and Iraqi special forces have removed many rogue militia leaders and Iranian advisers from Sadr City and other locations, reducing the power of militias... ...This is the Baghdad Security Plan, and its mission is to secure the people of Baghdad. Even so, commanders are not ignoring the outlying areas of Iraq. U.S. forces have killed or captured many important al Qaeda leaders in Mosul recently, and destroyed safe havens throughout northern Iraq. Troops are conducting counterinsurgency operations in Bayji, north of Tikrit. And Iraqi forces have "stepped up" to secure some southern cities. The Eighth Iraqi Army Division has been fighting Shiite militias in Diwaniyah, an important city halfway between Basrah and Baghdad. As commanders stabilize central Iraq, they will undoubtedly conduct successive operations in outlying regions to follow up on their successes and make them lasting. The larger aim of the new strategy is creating an opportunity for Iraq's leaders to negotiate a political settlement. These negotiations are underway. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is attempting to form a political coalition with Amar al-Hakim and Kurdish political leaders, but excluding Moqtada al-Sadr, and has invited Sunnis to participate. He has confronted Moqtada al-Sadr for promoting illegal militia activity, and has apparently prompted this so-called Iraqi nationalist to leave for Iran for the second time since January. Provincial and local government is growing stronger. Local and tribal leaders in Anbar, Diyala, Salah ad-Din, North Babil and even Baghdad have agreed to fight insurgents and terrorists as U.S. forces have moved in to secure the population alongside their Iraqi partners. As a result, the number of Iraqis recruited for the police forces, in particular, has risen exponentially since 2006. This is war, and the enemy is reacting. The enemy uses suicide bombs, car bombs and brutal executions to break our will and that of our Iraqi allies. American casualties often increase as troops move into areas that the enemy has fortified; these casualties will start to fall again once the enemy positions are destroyed. Al Qaeda will manage to get some car and truck bombs through, particularly in areas well-removed from the capital and its belts. But we should not allow individual atrocities to obscure the larger picture. A new campaign has just begun, it is already yielding important results, and its effects are increasing daily. Demands for withdrawal are no longer demands to pull out of a deteriorating situation with little hope; they are now demands to end a new approach to this conflict that shows every sign of succeeding. I know this all sounds a bit optimistic, but at least the WSJ is willing to print something positive about the situation in Iraq. If only it were enough to prevent the looming disaster of withdrawal our congress seems all too intent on making a reality. But it's a start. WIN THE WAR. |
| Posted by:eltoroverde |
| #1 Moud is escalating, while Dubya is entrenching + will not pull out during his last term. Dubya leaves office in January 2009 - he's got 17+ months until January 2009 to strengthen the US-Allied position in the ME agz Radical Iran, with no guarantee that Dubya will be a normal "lame duck" POTUS. The Spetzies, US DemoLefties, anti-US Globalists, etal. all know it. None of the current of post-Dubya GOP-DEM POTUS candidates are serious about either completely withdrawing US milfors from the ME nor reducing to force levels acceptable to both Iran + Radical Islamists. *SONG LYRIC > "TROUBLE [US-IRAN WAR] IS HEADED OUR WAY". IMO Moud = Radical Iran can always decide to wait and see what Dubya's successor will do, BUT I DOUBT MOUD, MULLAHS + ISLAMISTS, ETC WILL WAIT FOUR YEARS UNTIL 2012 IFF DUBYA'S SUCCESSOR DOES LITTLE OR NOTHING. The former will interprete any post-Dubya/2008 elex US inaction or minimum force redux as proof of US intentions to permanently stay in the ME in strength. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2007-07-11 22:25 |