WSJ: Tal Afar Turning Point?

Wall Street Journal ^ | September 15, 2005 | Editorial

[OESY]

...There are good reasons to believe the current operation in Tal Afar -- a largely Turkoman city near the Syrian border -- will be a model of things to come. Previous attempts to clean the terrorists out of Tal Afar and other cities in northern and western Iraq have too often seen the insurgents melt away only to return when the U.S. spearhead withdrew. This time Iraqis are leading the fight and, most important, many will stay so the people of Tal Afar can begin to believe they can live free of terrorist intimidation.

As of last night, a force of about 5,000 Iraqis and 3,800 Americans had killed at least 157 terrorists, detained 440 suspects, and discovered 34 weapons caches, all while suffering minimal casualties. "The terrorists are losing their morale. They couldn't resist as they did in Fallujah," Iraqi President Jalal Talabani told us yesterday in an interview in New York, where he is attending the United Nations General Assembly....

A U.S. officer with detailed knowledge offered us this assessment: "The Tal Afar operation has been a sweeping success for the Iraqi Security Forces in many ways. There is an Iraqi Army Brigade headquarters with four infantry battalions, a Special Police Commando Brigade headquarters with two battalions, and an Army Transportation battalion in the fight up there. The Police Commandos and one of the Army battalions were flown there by the Iraqi Air Force's own C-130 fleet executing their first combat support missions." Eight Iraqi soldiers and one American have died in the offensive.

...President Talabani told us that about 50,000-60,000 Iraqi troops can be considered "well trained," and the number is growing. They will eventually replace Americans, though we hope not before more Tal Afar operations can be undertaken....

[Luigi Vasellini]

CNN did a 2 hour long special on this, and its replaying on headline news continuously! /src/

[Eric in the Ozarks]

We could use a dose of good news.

[Yo-Yo]

Bush's fault.

[Cap Huff]

There is a very informative news conference transcript here:

http://www.dod.mil/transcripts/2005/tr20050914-3903.html

This transcript lends credence to the WSJ suggestion that Tel Afar is a major turning point.

[Steve_Seattle]

"This transcript lends credence to the WSJ suggestion that Tel Afar is a major turning point."

The recent missives from Zarquawi seem to indicate that the terrorists also think this is critical. Zarquawi has been DEMANDING that the US/Iraq forces abandon the Tel Afar operation. He must think that it's extremely important that this mission not succeed.

[wayoverontheright]

A very valuable psychological threshhold was passed when the Iraqis concluded "we can defeat you", and the jihadis have obviously concluded the same.

In all wars, the precursor to capitulation is embodied in the humiliation factor. Tal-Afar represents the possible catharsis for this to happen in the minds of our adversaries in Iraq. They have, up to now, been able to flee, confident in their ability to return and "fight another day", but with the spectre of exponential growth in Iraqi forces, Zarqawi and his ilk surely see defeat on the horizon.