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Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Surge Putting Pressure on Terrorists; Air Power Surges with Ground Troops

The good news coming from Iraq seems to be coming on a daily basis, some news good and some news even better.

Over the last few days we have seen that according to Gallup's latest poll, the GOP presidential candidates are trusted and hold more public confidence in two very important areas, Iraq and Terrorism, we have also seen two liberal thinking critics of how the war was handled until this latest surge and General Petraeus took over, come back from Iraq with more optimism that they previously had, we have also seen two Democratic Politicians, namely Keith Ellison and Jerry McNerney, come back from Iraq to report undeniable progress, Gordon Brown has surprised many by showing a deep understanding of the challenges and dangers we face internationally and acknowledged ours, as well as his, responsibilities in Iraq, we have brought you news that Move America Forward will be joined by tens of thousands others in a caravan leading to capitol hill for General Petraeus and his September report, to encourage Congress to help our troops attain victory instead of doing everything in their power to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory as they are so good at doing, Vets For Freedom will be there a few days later with Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans joining them to counter the anti-military voices that plan on converging on Capitol hill, we have seen a poll conducted that shows that Americans are just starting to see the success and progress in Iraq and are slowly inching up in support of our actions, this poll was conducted twice, both times with the same result.... it goes on and on, the good news, the turning tide has been coming to us, even through our MSM and all that has just been reported on in the last week.

When all of the weeks news is put together instead of on separate pages, do you see how well things are going?

Not to say that everything is a day in the park in Iraq, hell no, we still have some very serious challenges to face and much work to do.

But everything seen together shows a trend, a tide that is turning and it is turning in a very healthy direction. For Iraq and for America.

Remember, I haven't even mentioned the daily reports from Centcom here, showing even more progress.


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One of the most disturbing pieces of news though came from a Democratic politician, House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.), that has finally said what we all have been saying and the liberals have been denying... any good news from Iraq, or to state it more clearly, any progress that is reported by General Petraeus in September, regarding Iraq, will be "a problem for the Democrats".

House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said Monday that a strongly positive report on progress on Iraq by Army Gen. David Petraeus likely would split Democrats in the House and impede his party's efforts to press for a timetable to end the war.

[...]

Clyburn noted that Petraeus carries significant weight among the 47 members of the Blue Dog caucus in the House, a group of moderate to conservative Democrats. Without their support, he said, Democratic leaders would find it virtually impossible to pass legislation setting a timetable for withdrawal.

"I think there would be enough support in that group to want to stay the course and if the Republicans were to stay united as they have been, then it would be a problem for us," Clyburn said. "We, by and large, would be wise to wait on the report."


Very disturbing that good news about how our military is doing in Iraq is an obvious "problem" for the Democratic Caucus.

The implications there are simply astounding, although not surprising to those of us that have been saying that the Democratic politicians are too heavily invested in defeat and failure and are, by and large, betting against America and our military and actively wishing for failure.

Make of it what you will, but today we see there is even more good news from Iraq:

“We have established a degree of tactical momentum … and will continue to build on that momentum,” Navy Rear Adm. Mark I. Fox, deputy spokesman for Multinational Force Iraq, said during an in-country media roundtable this morning.

“We continue to pressure former sanctuaries in the Baghdad belts -- around Ramadi and in and around Baqubah -- denying (al Qaeda in Iraq) freedom of movement and disrupting extremist secret cells while increasing the confidence of the local citizens in the coalition and Iraqi security force.”

Already this year, coalition forces have seized or destroyed more weapons caches than in all of 2006, Fox said. Just last week, coalition and Iraqi security forces seized more than 120 caches, he added.

Tips are coming in from Iraqi citizens in record numbers. In June, 23,000 tips were called in to coalition and Iraqi forces -- four times the number at this point in 2006.

“The pace and number of weapons caches seized reflects the pressure being applied by the surge of operations. Nevertheless the enemy retains the capability to launch spectacular attacks, as we have seen them do with tragic results for innocent Iraqi citizens,” Fox said.

Iraqi security forces conducted a raid last week in Nasiriyah, seizing a cache with 42 improvised explosive devices, about 400 rockets, 70 mortar rounds, and 11 heavy machine guns.

Fox said another trend in the region pointing to the effectiveness of the surge is that tribes and leaders previously pitted against coalition forces are now joining the fight against insurgents. He cited a handful of recent events that indicate the “people of Iraq are rejecting the hatred, violence, sectarianism and Taliban-like state offered by (al Qaeda).”

-- One hundred sheikhs and 400 religious and political leaders met in Ramadi on July 7 for a conference called “Promise of the People”;

-- Fifty tribal leaders met at the governor’s house in Baqubah earlier this month to discuss security and services and pledged to work together in the Muqdadiyah Tribal Conference;

-- July 16 in Taji, Sunni and Shiia sheiks pledged unity to one another to stop sectarian attacks; and

-- Sixteen local sheiks and tribal leaders in Khalis on July 23 pledged on behalf of some 75 sheiks to work to end the violence.

Air power also is surging in support of ground forces, delivering fire power and other support in record numbers since the since the surge began, said Air Force Maj. Gen. David M. Edgington, who joined Fox at the roundtable. Edgington is director of the Air Component Coordination Element for Multinational Force Iraq. He is responsible for synchronizing all air assets into combat operations.

“Our purpose is to integrate our forces with the ground forces to synchronize the effects that we are able to bring to the battle in support of the coalition force,” he said.

Edgington said air support is flying 24 hours a day, seven days a week.


Things are happening fast, faster than even the proponents and supporters of General Petraeus expected and it is about time that, instead of denying these successes, instead of trying to distract from the and instead of actively working to ignore this news, that people start acknowledging that we might just win and be happy about it instead of considering a win for America and our military a loss for them.

I see in the NYT today this headline, (via memeorandum) "Democrats Scrambling to Expand Eavesdropping"

One specific sentence makes my point here:

Democratic leaders have expressed a new willingness to work with the White House to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to make it easier for the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on some purely foreign telephone calls and e-mail. Such a step now requires court approval.

It would be the first change in the law since the Bush administration’s program of wiretapping without warrants became public in December 2005.

In the past few days, Mr. Bush and Mike McConnell, director of national intelligence, have publicly called on Congress to make the change before its August recess, which could begin this weekend. Democrats appear to be worried that if they block such legislation, the White House will depict them as being weak on terrorism.


the appear more worried about the White House depicting them as weak onterrorism, than they are about America's safety.

It is a sad day when even the NYT sees this and yet our politicians do not understand how bad this looks.

It is time to get on the same side here and stop letting past mistakes and resentment determine whether we want America to win or lose.

Losing shouldn't even be an option.


Tracked back by:
Defeatism Rhetoric Losing OOMPH!! from Take Our Country Back...

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