Posted on 07/29/2007 8:44:30 PM PDT by neverdem
VIEWED from Iraq, where we just spent eight days meeting with American and Iraqi military and civilian personnel, the political debate in Washington is surreal. The Bush administration has over four years lost essentially all credibility. Yet now the administration’s critics, in part as a result, seem unaware of the significant changes taking place.
Here is the most important thing Americans need to understand: We are finally getting somewhere in Iraq, at least in military terms. As two analysts who have harshly criticized the Bush administration’s miserable handling of Iraq, we were surprised by the gains we saw and the potential to produce not necessarily “victory” but a sustainable stability that both we and the Iraqis could live with.
After the furnace-like heat, the first thing you notice when you land in Baghdad is the morale of our troops. In previous trips to Iraq we often found American troops angry and frustrated — many sensed they had the wrong strategy, were using the wrong tactics and were risking their lives in pursuit of an approach that could not work.
Today, morale is high. The soldiers and marines told us they feel that they now have a superb commander in Gen. David Petraeus; they are confident in his strategy, they see real results, and they feel now they have the numbers needed to make a real difference.
Everywhere, Army and Marine units were focused on securing the Iraqi population, working with Iraqi security units, creating new political and economic arrangements at the local level and providing basic services — electricity, fuel, clean water and sanitation — to the people. Yet in each place, operations had been appropriately tailored to the specific needs of the community. As a result, civilian fatality rates are down roughly a third since the surge began...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
IIRC, Pollack was on Clinton's NSC, and was pro-war before it started.
The NYT printed this? Shocker!
A startling admission for the New York Times to allow to grace its Opinion section.
Don't be fooled though. This piece will not represent a new outlook on the war at the NYT. The paper will follow this up with story after story in an attempt to repudiate this article.
We're going to let the #1 media treasoner switch to the winning side now?
OTOH, looks like we won in Iraq?
But even then they still can’t give the President any credit.
ping
We the United States of America completely and irreversibly lost the war in Iraq; the Distinguished Senate Majority Leader from Nevada His Most Elite Exalted Eminence Harry Reid tells us so. We now have only two questions to ask: who won? (the Islamofascist terrorists and the Islamic Republic of Iran) and how can we annihilate the victorious in our retreat? I think we’ve begun to answer the second question. And the destination of our retreat should be toward Tehran and possibly Damascus.
I’m still in shock.. NYT? This is a spoof, right?
The Bush administration’s critics are not so much unaware of the significant progress being made as they are philosophically unable (or unwilling, leading to the same result) publicly to acknowledge progress.
It probably might have worked out the same as now if our military had used General Petraeus’s plan a lot earlier but then I’m not so sure.
In these past few years the Al Qaeda and other terrorists have been killing the Iraqi people and put some stiff rules on the Sunnies which was suppose to be their allies to a point that even the friends they once had eventually got sick and tired of being sick and tired of the brutality that the Al Qaeda was putting them though.
So many of them switched sides. I’m not so sure if they would have switched sides any earlier than they did nor would they have switched if the Al Qaeda was half way human.
As a rule in the mid east, the Arab are the most racist biggest people in the world. We from the west are their natural enemies just for the fact of being foreign and the history.
It must have taken some doing, a lot of hard work on the Al Qaeda’s part for the Sunni tribes to switch to our side, to rat out on their own.
Now, General Petraeus comes in helps those people out with what really matters, make deals with them, treat them and the Sunni leadership with some respect, and the Sunnis find they have good reason to go against their own for the so called “Crusaders”.
At least, that is my take on it. We or General Petraeus are all very lucky that the Al Qaeda groups are such inhuman beings... unable to conduct themselves with any kind of humanity.
After a while, like the left wingers, no one can stand them very long.
They are climbing back on the bandwagon in time for election 2008
Military Fatalities: By Month
Jan03 -— -—Jan04 52 -—Jan05 127 —1Jan06 64 -—Jan07 86
Feb03 -— -—Feb04 23 -—Feb05 66 -—Feb06 58 -—Feb07 84
Mar03 92 -— Mar04 52 -—Mar05 39 -—Mar06 33 -—Mar07 82
Apr03 80 -—Apr04 140 -—Apr05 52 -—Apr06 82-—Apr07 117
May03 41 -—May04 84 -—May05 88 —May06 79 —May07 131
Jun03 36 -— Jun04 50 -— Jun05 83 -—Jun06 63 -—Jun07 108
Jul03 49 —— Jul04 58 —— Jul05 58 ——Jul06 46 -—July07 77 as of 7/28
Aug03 43 -— Aug04 85 -—Aug05 85 -—Aug06 66 -—Aug07
Sep03 33 -— Sep04 77 -—Sep05 52 -— Sep06 77 -—Sep07
Oct03 47 -— Oct04 110 -—Oct05 99 -— Oct06 110 -—Oct07
Nov03 110 —Nov04 141 -—Nov05 86 -—Nov06 78 -—Nov07
Dec03 48 -— Dec04 76 -—Dec05 68 -— Dec06 115 -—Dec07
Iraqi Security Forces and Civilian Deaths
Jan-06 779 -— Jan-07 1802
Feb-06 846 -— Feb-07 1531 (3014)
Mar-06 1092-—Mar-07 1889 (2977)
April-06 1009—April-07 1679 (1821)
May-06 1119-—May-07 1980
June-06 870 -—June-07 1345
July-06 1280 -—July-07 1604 as of 7/28
Aug-06 2966 -—Aug-07
Sept-06 3539 -—Sept-07
Oct-06 1539 -—Oct-07
Nov-06 1864 -—Nov-07
Dec-06 1752 -—Dec-07
http://www.icasualties.org/oif/
Evil always over-reaches itself...though at times, it takes a long time for good to prevail. I pray that this is a step toward victory for our soldiers!
Thanks for the link & stats.
Great post I think you made a lot of insightful points. Without letting al qaeda run wild on those iraqis they might not have realized what it was like to be under AQ control ironically.
And btw isn't David Patreus an incredible military leader? Hes the best I've seen in a long time, at least on the anti-insurgency side of things. I knew when I heard him talk before even going in that this guy was good.
This article is Extremely important. This is from two Democratic Party advisers warning Hillary and the Dems not to bet on defeat.
Folks, the Corner has been turned.
Be Seeing You,
Chris
Oh, good to see you again, sir.
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