Elsewhere:
Posted on 10/14/2007 7:56:50 PM PDT by nj26
The U.S. military believes it has dealt devastating and perhaps irreversible blows to al-Qaeda in Iraq in recent months, leading some generals to advocate a declaration of victory over the group, which the Bush administration has long described as the most lethal U.S. adversary in Iraq.
But as the White House and its military commanders plan the next phase of the war, other officials have cautioned against taking what they see as a premature step that could create strategic and political difficulties for the United States. Such a declaration could fuel criticism that the Iraq conflict has become a civil war in which U.S. combat forces should not be involved. At the same time, the intelligence community, and some in the military itself, worry about underestimating an enemy that has shown great resilience in the past.
There is widespread agreement that AQI has suffered major blows over the past three months. Among the indicators cited is a sharp drop in suicide bombings, the group's signature attack, from more than 60 in January to around 30 a month since July. Captures and interrogations of AQI leaders over the summer had what a senior military intelligence official called a "cascade effect," leading to other killings and captures. The flow of foreign fighters through Syria into Iraq has also diminished, although officials are unsure of the reason and are concerned that the broader al-Qaeda network may be diverting new recruits to Afghanistan and elsewhere.
The deployment of more U.S. and Iraqi forces into AQI strongholds in Anbar province and the Baghdad area, as well as the recruitment of Sunni tribal fighters to combat AQI operatives in those locations, has helped to deprive the militants of a secure base of operations, U.S. military officials said.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Crippled = Broken
than why does our media keep telling us ever since bush invaded iraq al queda has become stronger than ever...than again it’s always bush’ fault according to the Rats
“than why does our media keep telling us ever since bush invaded iraq al queda has become stronger than ever...than again it’s always bush’ fault according to the Rats”
Every once in awhile, they have to tell the truth to maintain some semblance of credibility.
Also their primary focus nowdays is upon boosting Hillary’s candidacy. Bush bashing has fallen down their list of priorities.
The question I keep posing is:
What if AlQueda threw a Tet offensive and we didn’t surrender?
It seems AlQueda is the one fighting the last war - Vietnam, and when their Tet offensive didn’t collapse Petraeus’ surge, the bad quys had shot their wad and now face collapse themselves.
The MSM and the dems are invested in defeat.
Anything that makes Bush looks bad leads.
Will the Bastard Children of the MSM report this info as wide spread as they’ve attempted to lie to bring about defeat?
Hell no.
And that’s what makes us better than them.
They have no honor and they know it.
That’s why it is impossible to make deals with them. They have to be destroyed and rendered in-effective as AQI or any other enemy of this country.
Hear me now or believe me later...
We are doing great things in Iraq.
More people die in D.C. daily than die in Bahgdad.
IIRC.
Maybe Thomas Ricks might want to write an addendum to his book about how incredibily evil and incompentent Bush and the US Military are. Just a thought.
Normally, once somebody comes out of the closet as a total partisan or completely and totally unbiased on some issue, don’t you at least keep them from being an ‘objective reporter’ on the same subject in the future? It would be like having Paul Krugman be the beat reporter on the Treasury Department or Helen Thomas be the White House correspondent.
(Wait, did I just prove that my point is moot? Crap. I think I did.)
I think you have it exactly right. The US was supposed to cave in on the domestic front. We didn't. Now (if this report is true) our enemies have nothing left to hope for.
Pelosi, Reid and Clinton are still alive and kicking.
Several things seem to be apparent. First of these is that we have penetrated their operational security to such an extent we know where their leaders are hiding in Iraq. We have been systematically policing them up.
I suspect this is also why it was “leaked” that we had penetrated their large Internet information network. We had already obtained everything of value from it that we could, so we wanted them to collapse it and rebuild, giving us enormous numbers of new leads and penetration points into their new communications apparatus as it was reconstructed.
The “holistic” approach of hitting every part of al-Qaeda at once have left them so weakened that we need a catastrophic failure on their part to ruin their recruiting efforts. Something that collapses their morale internationally, so much that they lose any attraction they have left. This is typically how such jihadist movements die.
You made a small mistake. Thats not our media. Thats Al-Quedas media CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, C-SPAN, PBS. These are the lying scumbags that want you to believe the U S Military is failing at every turn. And that the Military hating Democrats have a better plan. I have a plan. It involves electing Fred Thompson. The Dems worst nightmare.
Elsewhere:
It continues to be a mistake for any and all to pretend that “al qaeda” is “militant/radical islam”.......muslims the world over are loyal to islam and its expansionism, and whatever hat any of them happen to be wearing at any given moment is just taqiyya for public consumption. In the end, they are muslim, and we are the mark.......they settle for what they see as progress while we want victory........in that way, there is little difference between “iraq”, “al qaeda”, “iran”, etc etc etc. Nothing has changed in islam for 1400 years except its progress minus its setbacks......and for the last 40 or 50 years its oil money and what that money will buy for them - ironically even from its marks.
I cringe every time I see “al qaeda” in print.....it is a fools game to consider it so broadly, forgetting almost all aspects of the real islam.
Grrreat news! GRRRRREAT FReeper comments on the enemy within! Thanks to all. BTTT!
Quick!!!! Insult someone so that the apple cart gets upset!!!
Hurry...Turkey is nearby!!
This issue also touches on all the Dems who declared the surge a failure before it had even started. The Dems own a defeat that increasingly looks like it won’t be coming. May they get their proper reward for aligning themselves with those who are working to behead, poison, destroy and nuke us.
I hope that at least some of the public has gotten an earful about how worthless the MSM is, indeed dangerous, when it comes to matters of national security.
Because until recently (VERY recently) AQI was strong. GEN Petreus' deals with the mukhtars, imams, and tribal chiefs around the country have dealt the worst blows to AQI in the outlying rural areas of the country. In the cities, far more aggressive patrolling, hunting, and cooperation with the ISF (as well as rooting out corruption in their ranks) have made the cities much safer than before. I speak from experience on that last part, as my Battalion spent two straight months in the snake pit of Dora. That place was ridiculously violent for a very long time. Now, almost nothing happens there anymore. It was a LOT of work, but the results were unquestionably good.
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