“Anyone think this could be a disinfo campaign on the part of the terrorists? I am skeptical of every word out of their lying mouths.”
Yes, but there are over 120 posts at this time and I don’t have time to read them right now to see if I’m duplicating thoughts.
My first thought was “the lying bastards” are trying to put the blame for any further terrorist strikes on someone else to rekindle the fires and draw more help from the Democrats to cause us to withdraw. I wouldn’t put it past them to use such tactics.
No need to worry. AQI is a glory hounding machine that takes credit whenever it can. If they're not promoting fresh new attacks, the donations from Saudi financiers dries up, and the recruiting, local and foreign, dries up. They can't survive off of other people's successes. Especially not Shia ones.
I don't believe 200, only in that I don't think that AQI leadership could guess how many active members they have left to the nearest thousand. They're unpopular, broken, decentralized, and being hunted down left and right. Once their last VBIED cells are rounded up, they'll be unable to stage spectacular attacks, and the media coverage will evaporate. When that goes, they go. AQI is a media monster that can't survive without camera time.
The real fight will be with the Jaysh al Mahdi. But, how much does Iran really want to push us, now that they've got a breather from the NIE? They know that AQI is all but defeated, and JAM Special Groups will soon be getting our undivided attention. Why not quit while they're ahead? If they stop sending EFPs, (as opposed to slow down considerably, which they have done), we'll have no reason to attack them. A clean de-escalation for everyone.