Al Qaeda in Iraq on the Run

National Review Online ^ | 10/18/07 | Clifford May

[StatenIsland]

Can you imagine what this country could accomplish if we worked with one mind?

And imagine further the hell that Democrats could inflict on future generations of Americans with their policies of defeat and appeasement...

[Eric in the Ozarks]

The same incrementalism that worked so well in Viet Nam is being put to work in Iraq. Trouble is, W’s out of time.

[adorno]

Osama: “The war’s lost!”

Harry Reid: “Hey! That’s my line!”

[bray]

The Surge has Worked and Victory is Ours, NO thanks to the Rats. The Stone Age Press will be reporting our failures from the back of the Victory Parades.

Pray for W and Our Troops

[Allegra]

How startled CNN producers and the Senator must have been to see the front-page story this week in the Washington Post reporting that American troops have dealt “devastating and perhaps irreversible blows to al-Qaeda in Iraq.” If our forces have achieved this without it being their mission, and despite the “resistance” of “ordinary Iraqis,” they must be warriors unlike any the world has seen since Thermopylae.

Bears repeating. :-) Is the media on the verge of reaping what it has sown?

[Racehorse]

Trouble is, W’s out of time.

How do you figure that?

[Eric in the Ozarks]

What’s he going to do in the year he has left ? Another surge ?

[Don Corleone]

. The Stone Age Press will be reporting our failures from the back of the Victory Parades.

Just like they have half the population convinced that we are in a recession in the midst of a booming economy. They are unreal.

[PGalt]

BTTT!

[Racehorse]

So, you’re really don’t have any figuring behind that statement.

15 months is a very long time.

[wmfights]

"The Iraqi people are fed up with the violence and with the extremists, both Sunni and Shia,” Grigsby said. Far from “resisting” the American troops in their communities, “they want to join the fight and protect their neighborhoods. They are coming to us and saying, ‘How can we help? We don’t want to live like this.’”

This culture has always responded to strength. When we show that we are not only going to kill the enemy, but also occupy the areas the enemy once had they will support us. It also means we are going to have to be there a long time till they learn how to deal with the external and internal terrorists.

My thinking is it's always better to kill the enemy before they come here.

[Former MSM Viewer]

ROCK ON, TROOPS!!!!!!

God Bless you and your families...

Kick Butt!

[Allegra]

What’s he going to do in the year he has left ? Another surge ?

Why would he do that? This one's yielding significant results.

[daviscupper]

Trouble is, W’s out of time.

How do you figure that?

Good point. I think Dubya is going to work very hard in his last 14 months in office. He will allow Patreus to continue to take the fight to Al Qaeda. I expect more and more good news to come out of Iraq. By the time Dubya leaves office our goals to establish a stable Iraq will be irreversible, regardless of who will be the next President.

[madvlad]

If the current “paradigm” shift is real, then Bushhead may just come out of
this smelling like a genius.

Count the loozers:
1) al quada and Bin Lardass
2) Iran/Syria
3) Russia
4) France/Germany
5) Harry, Nancy and the Dems

This is by no means intended as an inclusive list nor is it in any
particular order.

MV

[SueRae]

Col. Wayne W. Grigsby, Jr., who commands a “surge” brigade based in a mixed Sunni and Shia area near Baghdad, made it simple for me in a phone conversation this week: “We do not commute to work,” he said. “We live in the towns with the people we are here to help.”

Beautiful. Spoken like a true leader.

[Southack]

It’s a good article, but like most such articles it isn’t pointing out the larger strategic facts such as Al Qaeda being unable to expand their war into Israel...being unable to take over Egypt...losing Somalia to Ethiopian Christians...losing Lebanon (twice!)...being unable to overthrow Musharraf in Pakistan...losing Libya...losing Liberia...losing Afghanistan, etc.

Which is to say, it isn’t *just* that Al Qaeda is getting its clock cleaned in Iraq. It’s also that solidly Islamic nations such as Jordan have declared war...not against the U.S...but against Al Qaeda itself!

And in the process, the U.S. has *more* allies today than we had prior to 2003.

In contrast, nations that once opposed our mission in Iraq now support it (e.g. France). Leaders who opposed the Iraq War are out of power.

Schroeder is gone from Germany. Martin is gone in Canada. Chirac is gone in France. Hussein is dead in Iraq.

So Al Qaeda is losing, and losing in a big way not only militarily, but also politically/diplomatically.

Is it any surprise that Al Qaeda has been unable to repeat 9/11 here in the U.S. after President Bush took the war to anti-American elements worldwide?!

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Do you not recall Rummy's rejection of additional troops in country for the first 4 years of this campaign ? Would it have been a better idea to have doubled the force in the first place ? Now, at the end of his presidency for all practical purposes, we have the surge, which is working.
Why not 1,000 days ago ?

[johnthebaptistmoore]

What about all of the other terrorist organizations in Iraq? Are they also on the run?

[Racehorse]

Hey, I subscribe to the Powell doctrine. But, we didn’t follow the doctrine. To spin off Rummy’s wit, we fight the war we’ve got.

I also believe that when Bush chose Petraeus he also chose to pursue a follow-on strategy dependent on the success of “the surge.” Whatever that strategy might be, so long as the results are positive, Petraeus has an implacable will in Bush supporting him.

And if Petraeus does continue to effect the goals we set out to accomplish, the Democrats become increasing impotent and politically vulnerable. IMHO, of course. :-)

The mistakes of a 1,000 days ago, if they were all mistakes, are utterly useless contemplation. What matters is what happens today and tomorrow and the next day. Don’t ya think?