Gunner: Thanks for the Kagan article. Though it’s evident from the statistics Kagan cited that violence is subsiding and political stability returning we all know it won’t make the slightest dent in the Democrat’s rush to surrender.

Al Queda knows that all it has to do is have half a dozen spectacular attacks in September right before Petraeus reports to Congress on progress for every Democrat to run to the nearest microphone and demand an immediate withdrawal.

Looks like the surrender monkeys are going to cave, for now, on Iraq funding.

But all bets are off in September.

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Thanks, Gunner. This in from The Strata-Sphere:

A delegation of Sahwa al-Anbar, (Anbar Awakening) the tribal alliance in the restive Sunni province of Al Anbar, has made an unprecedented visit to Sadr City, the Baghdad stronghold of radical Shiite imam Moqtada al-Sadr, according to pan Arab daily al-Sharq al-Awsat. “We have taken this step to place national interest ahead of any differences” said the head of the US-endorsed Sunni alliance Hamid al-Hayas. “This is an effort to bring closer together the Sunni and Shiite Iraqi points of view. We want to deliver a message to all the political groups to put aside their differences and act for the common good” he said.

…

At the end of the meeting the two sides signs a joint document in which they vowed to fight the terrorism of al-Qaeda. The group has become increasingly isolated within the Sunni insurgency because of its indiscriminate targeting of civilians.

In an unprecedented step, a top leader of the pro-US tribal alliance in Anbar Province traveled to Sadr City Tuesday to meet with leaders of the Sadrist current.
Sheikh Hamid al-Hayis, who leads the armed wing of the US-backed movement known as the Anbar Awakening, or the Anbar Salvation Council, held a rare meeting with Sadrist leaders in Baghdad’s Sadr City, the bastion of support for the young cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, and stronghold of the Mahdi Army.

“This meeting is a message to Iraqi politicians to get rid of their differences and to seek real reconciliation,” Hayis said, according to the AFP.

“We are trying to pressure (the government) to make political changes for the sake of the Iraqi people who are drowning in the blood of their sons,” Hayis added.

“This visit shows that Iraqi tribes are standing side by side and they are the nail in the coffin of the abhorrent sectarianism which has split our country,” said Shi’a Sheikh Malik Sewadi al-Mohammedawi, whom AFP identifies as the head of one of Sadr City’s most influential tribes.

…

AFP reports that the participants in Tuesday’s meeting called for “improved national security services, for holding internationally monitored provincial council elections, and for ‘calling any killer of Iraqis a terrorist who has to be fought’.”

In a statement issued by the two groups at the end of the discussions also affirmed the unity and sovereignty of Iraq and called for building up the country’s armed forces on a professional and national basis, Radio Sawa Net reports in Arabic.

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http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2007/05/21/2007-05-21_you_bet_we_can_win.html

You bet we can win

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BY FREDERICK KAGAN

Monday, May 21st 2007, 4:00 AM

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Iraq is the central front in the war against Al Qaeda. And we are beginning to win. These are not talking points. They are facts on the ground, as I saw during my recent trips there.

Though you may be getting the opposite impression from news reports, the sectarian violence that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had unleashed by destroying the Samarra Mosque in February 2006 has subsided. Measured weekly, sectarian killings are down by almost two-thirds since the start of the Baghdad security plan. Anbar Province, Al Qaeda’s former sanctuary in western Iraq, has turned against the terrorists. Anbaris by the thousands are signing up to fight against Al Qaeda. Violent attacks in the province are down by 50% and combined casualties down by 65% between early January and mid-May.

The movement is spreading. Sheiks in Diyala, Salah-ad-Din and Babil provinces are reaching out to coalition forces to help us.

This is not the moment to consider withdrawal time lines that would snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, as the U.S. Congress seems determined to do. It is the time to redouble our efforts.

It is true that the overall level of violence in Iraq remains high, and American soldiers are still dying. Scores of terrorists flow into Iraq every month, detonating suicide car bombs against civilians, Iraqi security forces and American troops. This is the core of the security problem faced by our troops and by innocent Iraqis.

But looking at these casualty numbers alone distorts reality. Security is improving across Baghdad, even in traditionally bad areas. In early May, I walked and drove through these neighborhoods. Haifa St., scene of day-long gunfights between Al Qaeda terrorists and coalition forces in January, is calm and starting to revive. Its market is open and flourishing.

Even in Baghdad’s Dora neighborhood, some of which remains very dangerous, the market now has more than 200 shops – up from zero in February. Across the city, Iraqis are reaching out to coalition and Iraqi troops with tips and requests for help.

In some areas, that help takes the form of attacking the enemy and responding to enemy counterattacks. But as we kill and capture these evil people, we create safety in our wake. We are not standing between warring communities. We stand between terrorists and murderers and their innocent victims, both Sunni and Shia.

It will take time for that safety to take hold. It will take time for our enemies to accept their defeat and stop fighting. Demanding total victory by September is unrealistic. But we are making progress, and by then, I am confident we will be making more.

One thing impressed me above all on my most recent trip, from which I returned on May 13: Ordinary Iraqis have not given up. Sadrists in the parliament may demand our withdrawal, but the government of Iraq has repeatedly asked us to stay. Iraqi soldiers and police are fighting Al Qaeda and Shia militias every day, sacrificing alongside our troops.

One Iraqi commander told me, “Anyone who says the Americans should leave now is not a real Iraqi citizen.”

Growing numbers of Iraqis are joining the struggle against those who want to derail Iraq’s chances for security and stability. We must not let them down, and we must not let ourselves down. This is a fight that we can and must win.

Kagan, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, is author of “Finding The Target: The Transformation of American Military Policy.”

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