Victor Davis Hanson: Hope yet for Iraq? A Changing Iraq. Newfound optimism

jewishworldreview.com ^ | October 11, 2007 | Victor Davis Hanson

[Tolik]

Iraq for most Americans is now a toxic subject — best either ignored or largely evoked to blame someone for something in the past.

Any visitor to Iraq can see that the American military cannot be defeated there, but also is puzzled over exactly how we could win — victory being defined as fostering a stable Iraqi constitutional state analogous to, say, Turkey.

But war is never static. Over the last 90 days, there has been newfound optimism, as Iraqis are at last stepping forward to help Americans secure their country.

I spent last week touring outlying areas of Baghdad and American forward operating bases in Anbar and Diyala provinces, talking to Army and Marine combat teams and listening to Iraqi provincial and security officials.

Whether in various suburbs of Baghdad, or in Baqubah, Ramadi or Taji, there is a familiar narrative of vastly reduced violence. Until recently, the Americans could not find enough interpreters, were rarely warned about landmines and had little support from Iraqi security forces.

But now they are being asked by Iraqis in the "Sunni Triangle" to join them to defeat the very terrorists the locals once championed. Anbar, a province that just months ago was deemed lost by a U.S. military intelligence report, is now in open revolt against al-Qaida.

Why the change?

[Tolik]

The title combines this article titles as syndicated: Hope yet for Iraq? and as published in the NRO: A Changing Iraq. Newfound optimism

[Tolik]

    Victor Davis Hanson Ping ! 

       Let me know if you want in or out.

Links:    FR Index of his articles:  http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=victordavishanson
                His website: http://victorhanson.com/
                NRO archive: http://www.nationalreview.com/hanson/hanson-archive.asp
                Pajamasmedia:   http://victordavishanson.pajamasmedia.com/

[Tolik]

    Victor Davis Hanson Ping ! 

       Let me know if you want in or out.

Links:    FR Index of his articles:  http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=victordavishanson
                His website: http://victorhanson.com/
                NRO archive: http://www.nationalreview.com/hanson/hanson-archive.asp
                Pajamasmedia:   http://victordavishanson.pajamasmedia.com/

[Tolik]

Sorry for the double ping - Internet hiccups.

[Blennos]

I'll help you keep this thread alive.

Anything by VDH is of note.

[Tolik]

Parts 1 and 2:

Victor Davis Hanson:Observations about the war. Impressions of Iraq
pajamasmedia.com ^ | October 6 and 7, 2007

Victor Davis Hanson: Iraqi Impressions — Final Part III
 

[wizr]

God brutally honest read. We must stay the course.

Thanks, for your ongoing effort.

[Madame Dufarge]

BTT.

Thanks, Tolik.

Good news from VDH.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Good reference material on this FR thread :

Khawaarij and Jihad: Is Al-Qaida's Network in Iraq Doomed to the Fate of the GIA? ( Algeria ....)

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Iraq & the Americas: 3 GEN Gangs Lessons and Prospects

****************************EXCERPT****************************

From a 3 GEN Gangs perspective, Iraq has been essentially overrun by 3rd generation gangs and their criminal-soldier equivalents. This is reminiscent of the nightmare scenario for the US already starting to develop in Central and South America (and, to a lesser extent, within the US) with the emergence, growth, and expansion of Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and other Maras. In many ways, the ‘Gangs of Iraq’ are a prelude to the ‘Gangs of the Americas’ that we will be increasingly facing in the Western Hemisphere.

Gangs emerge, prosper, and solidify their position as a viable social organizational form in housing projects, neighborhoods, prisons, slums, cities, urban regions, and even entire countries that have undergone (or are undergoing) varying forms of societal failure. The rise of newer forms of tribalism leading to gang emergence may be derived from combinations that include lack of jobs, high levels of poverty and drug abuse, low educational levels, an absence of functional families, along with high levels of crime and lawlessness, including that generated by domestic internal strife, which result in a daily threat of bodily injury. Further, newer forms of tribalism may readily mingle with older pre-existing forms of tribalism based on kinship, clan, and other extended family groupings.

[FreedomPoster]

So first we had an independent military correspondent in the mold of Ernie Pyle, in the form of Michael Yon, making the mainstream media’s reporting from Iraq look weak and ineffectual. Now we have an aging history professor on the ground in Iraq, making them look doubly bad. You’ve got to love it.

Radigan’s Raiders ping.

[StarCMC]

Bump that.

[StarCMC]

Thanks for the ping. VDH is one of my faves! Even more so since he’s making the MSM look bad! LOL

[Smokin' Joe]

Iraqis told me that their widely held fear that Americans are going to leave soon has galvanized Sunnis to finally step up to secure their country or face even worse chaos in our absence.

The result is that ordinary Iraqis are increasingly willing to participate in local government and civil defense

You have to love the irony inherent in this. The Dems started pushing for a pullout and it is helping win the war.

Thanks for the ping!