While there is still violence in Iraq, and considering what I see on our own local news, completely wiping out violence isn't possible because we haven't been able to do so ourselves here in America, things in Iraq are definitely looking up.
WASHINGTON – Sen. Lindsey Graham has returned from his seventh wartime visit to Iraq with renewed hope that the U.S. troop buildup is producing results.
At the same time, the South Carolina Republican told Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other Iraqi leaders that they’ve made too little progress on steps such as reconciling the country’s warring factions and sharing oil revenues among Shiite Muslims, Sunni Muslim Arabs and Kurds.
“We left the impression upon them that patience at home (in the United States) is running out,” Graham said in a phone call from Paris while en route home Thursday.
In contrast with the stalled political progress, Graham said, the surge – the dispatch of 30,000 more U.S. troops that Bush began in January – is yielding clear results.
“The military part of the surge is working beyond my expectations,” Graham said. “We literally have the enemy on the run. The Sunni part of Iraq has really rejected al-Qaida all over the country. We’re getting more information about al-Qaida operations than we’ve ever received.”
Graham and Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona also met with Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. troops in Iraq, and with Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq.
In Baghdad, Graham and McCain led an Independence Day military re-enlistment ceremony at an ornate former palace of Saddam Hussein.
A total of 588 U.S. troops re-upped at Camp Victory, U.S. headquarters in Iraq, while 161 soldiers became naturalized American citizens.
McCain, who’s running for president, addressed the re-enlistees, and Graham led the new citizens in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.
“Morale was very high,” Graham said. “It was something to see.”
Graham and McCain ate lunch in Ramadi, a former terrorist stronghold 100 miles west of Baghdad that two U.S. senators couldn’t have visited six months ago, Graham said.
Power Line points out tht due to the Sunni's turning against al-Qaeda in Iraq, Zawahiri, in his latest video, reeks of desperation:
He begins by talking about Iraq, and that remains the main subject although there are passing references to other fields of battle. His theme on Iraq is the need for unity. Reading between the lines, you can tell that Muslims, including relatively radical Muslims, are distancing themselves from al Qaeda in Iraq, or, as Zawahiri calls it, the Islamic State of Iraq. He criticizes clerics who say there is no duty to carry out jihad in Iraq. He contrasts al Qaeda in Iraq favorably with Hamas, and complains that while Hamas receives near-universal support, al Qaeda in Iraq suffers from "a storm of media campaigns, allegations and claims ... whipped up in their face."
In part, as many commentators have noted, Zawahiri's plea for unity in Iraq reflects the abandonment of al Qaeda by most Sunnis there, and the fact that many Sunnis have joined with the U.S. and the Iraqi government in fighting al Qaeda. But the defensiveness Zawahiri betrays goes well beyond that schism. He plainly is concerned about how things are going in Iraq, and is anxious to generate support for his organization's efforts there.
FT.com shows that we are collecting more and more evidence of Iran's involvement in formenting the violence in Iraq.
It behooves Iran to NOT have a stable Iraq and anyone that tries to deny the reality of the fact that Iran encourages and arms the insurgents in Iraq and elsewhere, is simply closing their eyes to proof because it is not convenient to them politically.
Evidence that Iranian territory is being used as a base by al-Qaeda to help in terrorist operations in Iraq and elsewhere is growing, say western officials.
It is not clear how much the al-Qaeda operation, described by one official as a money and communications hub, is being tolerated or encouraged by the Iranian government, they said.
The group’s operatives, who link the al-Qaeda leadership in Pakistan with their disciples in Iraq, the Levant and North Africa, move with relative freedom in the country, they said.
The officials said the creation of some kind of al-Qaeda hub in Iran appears to be separate from the group of seven senior al-Qaeda figures, including Saad bin Laden, son of the group’s figurehead, that Iran is said to have detained since 2002.
Amy Proctor made a comment on my latest Good News From Iraq piece, asking a question that never seems to be answered.
Oh, please, Spree, you're just trying to spin~! We all know this is a lost war!
Interestingly enough, when you hear "There were two car bombings today in Baghdad", how come you never hear "There were 5 new schools reopened in Baghdad today" or "Iraqis continue to turn in the terrorists" or "GIs saved 10 Iraqi civilians from al-Qaeda"??? Why isn't that newsworthy?
Amy asks a very good question we have asked here many times, which is why we DO the Good News pieces to begin with.
I get the daily releases from Centcom on their site, available to everybody that cares enough about the truth, instead of the "spin", and yes, that includes reporters from the MSM, they simply CHOOSE not to show the American public all the good things our troops are doing.
So, to answer Amy's question: It IS news worthy. It just doesn't fit with the liberals agenda to acknowledge the progress and success our wonderful military is seeing because that would mean having to acknowledge that they don't WANT us to succeed in Iraq.
Politics to them trumps what is good for our country.
It is that simple.
They do not want to see that our coalition forces are capturing and killing terrorists and insurgents in Sadr City, or that the Iraqi Air Force is displaying proficiency, or any of the news that comes out every day indicating that the Iraqi's are making real success and progress towards their goal of becoming self sufficient.
The reporters from our MSM sit back, rely on stringers, make up stories about beheadings that never happen, then are forced to retract their stories as they completely ignore the real news from people like Michael Yon and Bill Roggio, men who risk their lives and embed with our military to give us the truth about what is happening in Iraq, the bad and the good. The success and progress as well as the failures.
In the meantime the far left liberal bloggers sit on their asses at home, watch TV, read rags like the NYT and repeat the lies that the AP reports and insist they are better informed than the men and women with their boots on the ground.
So, to answer Amy's question as simply as I can, the liberals don't WANT America to win. The liberals cannot stand the thought that we are seeing success in Iraq. The liberals would rather live in their fantasy world where America is always the bad guy and the terrorists are just poor misunderstood souls that need saving.
So, while Congressional approval ratings spiral downward in a freefall and politicians like Nancy Pelosi continue to try to force defeat down America's throat, while they waste their time and our money on investigations that lead nowhere and refuse to legislate as they were elected to do, our men and women in the armed forces continue to see progress and success in Iraq, yet when we do achieve the victory that we are well on our way to, the liberals will try to claim they hand a hand in it.
If they weren't so obnoxiously idiotic, I could actually pity them.
As it is, all I can feel for them is contempt.
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