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| Iraq |
| Hugh Hewett interviews Michael Yon: Surge working |
| 2007-07-13 |
| A taste. Go read the whole thing. Hattip Instapundit. HH: Now Michael Yon, a lot of people donÂ’t know the significance of Baquba. And so can you explain what peace in Baquba means for the larger war effort? MY: Well, itÂ’s huge, because al Qaeda had claimed Baquba as their capitol, their worldwide capitol. And you might recall one of the things that kind of upsets people about my reporting is I said Iraq was in a civil war, and I said that way back in February of 2005, and I continue to do so. But when I first wrote that, I was in Baquba, in 2005, and I spent two or three months here. And it was just totalÂ…you could see it, and you could see al Qaeda was trying to foment that civil war, because thatÂ’s their underlying strategy, is to do that. And so getting, fracturing al Qaeda here, and al Qaeda alienating so many Iraqis, itÂ’s helping us to put a damper on the civil war. HH: Now yesterday, Harry Reid said on the floor of the Senate that the surge has failed. Do you think thereÂ’s any factual basis for making that assertion, Michael Yon, from what youÂ’ve seen in Iraq over the last many months? MY: HeÂ’s wrong, heÂ’s wrong. It has absolutely not failed, and in fact, IÂ’m finally willing to say it in public. I feel like itÂ’s starting to succeed. And you know, IÂ’m kind of stretching a little bit, because we havenÂ’t gone too far into it, but I can see it from my travels around, for instance, in Anbar and out here in Diyala Province as well. BaghdadÂ’s still very problematic. But thereÂ’s other areas where you can clearly see that there is a positive effect. And the first and foremost thing we have to do is knock down al Qaeda. And with them alienating so many Iraqis, I mean, theyÂ’re almost doing it for us. I mean, yeah, it takes military might to finally like wipe them out of Baquba, but itÂ’s working. I mean, I sense that the surge is working. Reid is just wrong. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #7 Harry Reid is right in a way. Until Congress says the right thing the terrorists are assured of victory - as we mop the floor with them. Only Congress can hand victory to our enemies. Tet Part Deux - Return of the Stupid and Disloyal. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2007-07-13 23:25 |
| #6 So Jimmy Carter was a super genius allowing Khomenei to seize power? Yes, it was part of the plan. |
| Posted by: Carl Roves Daddy 2007-07-13 17:04 |
| #5 Now we just need to defeat the dhimocrats.... |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2007-07-13 11:59 |
| #4 So Jimmy Carter was a super genius allowing Khomenei to seize power? Still waiting for the counter revolution. |
| Posted by: ed 2007-07-13 11:07 |
| #3 Another way to put it, some people have to hit rock bottom before they can accept they have a problem. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2007-07-13 11:04 |
| #2 I would like to think that some ingenious individual figured out early on that there were parts of the country that were just so insurgent and al-Qaeda friendly, that they were a lost cause--as such. So how do you "turn" such people to our side? As the saying goes, when the gods really want to stick it to someone who annoys them, they grant them their wish. But I haven't seen anyone speculate that we did this intentionally. That would be, a strategy of allowing, or even encouraging al-Qaeda to occupy and concentrate in a hostile town, to give the locals a feel for what life under such murderous monsters would be like. And then, after living under King Stork, see how willing they are to instead live under King Log, to reference the Aesop fable. It would go hand in hand with the strategy of encouraging a diffuse, invisible, and unconventional enemy to concentrate, so that they can be met head on and "cleanly" defeated, such as in Fallujah. In both cases, these would seem to be excellent examples of non-linear strategy in an unconventional war. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2007-07-13 10:51 |
| #1 Assuming what M Yon and others says is correct, one of the keys to victory is, strangely, defeat. That is, if al Q had not successfully established itself in large parts of the country for a substantial period of time. During this time al Q tortured tribal chiefs, stole from businesses, killed off rival clerics, which offset the largely pro alQ media. |
| Posted by: mhw 2007-07-13 08:01 |