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I doubt one post on a single forum represents anyone much...

There have been several reports lately about significant progress in Iraq. These have come in the form of reports from American soldiers writing home, but also from the change in the attitude of several key democrats from "pull out now" to "we can't pull out now".

But jveritas' translation shows that morale is poor on the terrorist side, and confirms reports of progress from American soldiers.

Unfortunately, the MSM is so slanted in favor of defeat that we may never get a report of "AQ is on the run." The MSM is largely unreliable regarding Iraq progress.

There have been several reports lately about significant progress in Iraq.

No denying that the situation has improved, judging by the reports.

These have come in the form of reports from American soldiers writing home, but also from the change in the attitude of several key democrats from "pull out now" to "we can't pull out now".

Soldiers writing for or against the war are offering their own perspective. I read the positive ones as well as the negative ones like the NYT published (noting the NYT refused to publish the rebuttal from other active-duty in Iraq). I support the troops and it's great to hear from them. Personally, I think we should hear more from all of them, however they stand. The enlisted have free speech rights that officers don't. And I don't know why their service to our country should ever be a foil to silence their First Amendment rights. Officers including retired officers, of course, don't possess the free exercise of those same rights, it's part of being an officer.

I guess I'm saying that I like to read all the anecdotal reports from soldiers. But I think we have to turn to Pentagon sources for the real overall story.

But jveritas' translation shows that morale is poor on the terrorist side, and confirms reports of progress from American soldiers.

Well, it shows that someone posted at a native Iraqi forum a defeatist post, indicate the poster believed al-Qaeda had made many mistakes and was fleeing to Mosul. Whether that was a disinfo post by an al-Qaeda operative or a disinfo defeatist post by someone sitting at a desk at the CIA or NSA, or whether it was an operative of Iraq's intel units or whether it was just an ordinary terrorist sympathizer in Iraq (or elsewhere in the Muslim world), well, we simply have no way of knowing.

You know, we love to bemoan publicly just how helpless we are in human intel in foreign countries. And yet, history shows that we do in fact possess great resources for such intel. But then, don't all the intel agencies pretend to be helpless idiots, incapable of anything? I mean, they are disinformation agencies and try to lull opponents into understimating them.

Wheels within wheels within wheels...

It's very hard for the public to ever know what all these groups are really up to until about 20 years after the fact. And then we never really know everything. The agencies are very good at protecting methods and source even if they appear to have revealed them in their declassified documents. Any attempt by the citizenry to penetrate this world of espionage and propaganda inevitably turns into unverifiable conspiracy-mongering of various sorts (not this post by jveritas but just such efforts in general).