DJ Elliot at The Long War Journal updates us on the Iraqi Security Forces Order of Battle. Its a detailed piece but some of it stood out to me:

The 1st Iraqi Army Division has officially joined the 9th Iraqi Army Mechanized Division as a part of the Iraqi Ground Forces Command Quick Reaction Forces. The forces currently under 1st Division in Basrah are the 1st, 3rd, 14th, and 26th Brigades from Anbar and Salahadin Provinces. Their rapid deployment to Basrah with no notice indicated a significant improvement in Iraqi Army capabilities. In August 2006, the Iraqi Army couldn’t deploy three battalions to Baghdad with a month’s notice. They had some difficulty deploying three brigades to Baghdad in early 2007 with plenty of notice. Now they are able to deploy an entire division to Basrah in five days with no notice. This would be difficult even for the US Army to accomplish.

When you train them well, and with patience….miracles can happen. Additionally DJ updates us on new Iraqi engineer units, and a new reconnaissance battalion trained by US Special Forces.

All progress never reported by our MSM.

But at least one European paper printed an article about some progress rarely heard:

Despite an apparent upsurge of terrorism, including the attack on President Karzai of Afghanistan, a return of suicide bombings in Iraq and a spate of assassinations in Lebanon and North Africa, in the Muslim heartlands al-Qaeda is on the retreat. The call on devout Muslims to purge the Islamic world of its corrupt rulers, that fell on such fertile ground in the Arabian peninsula, is losing its pull. In Saudi Arabia, a police crackdown and the arrest and re-education of scores of extremist preachers have persuaded thousands to renounce their former loyalty to Osama bin Laden. In Iraq, the targeting of civilians by suicide bombers and al-Qaeda’s torture of sectarian enemies has so sickened tribal leaders that most are joining in the fight against foreign extremists. And in North Africa, security forces have recently killed some 20 suspected militants.

The virulent ideology, spawned by anger at Western troops in Saudi Arabia and the perceived corruption of ruling elites, has, according to senior intelligence officers, been dissipated as terrorist groups increasingly become a front for drug smuggling, extortion, crime or ethnic hatred. Frustrated zealots have seen their attempts to rid Muslim societies of Western influence mocked and thwarted. Moderates have spoken out, Governments across the Middle East have woken up to the threat and nowhere has crude Islamism triumphed. Another spectacular atrocity remains a possibility, but the core ideology has less traction across the Muslim world.

~~~

Al-Qaeda remains a danger, but there is now a real chance that this backward-looking ideology can be defeated. Global terrorism is still a serious threat and parts of al-Qaeda’s deadly virus may mutate. The West must remain vigilant to confront these mutations wherever they appear.

Because Bush and this country took the fight to terror, in Afghanistan and Iraq, our enemy is down. Not completely beaten but down on the mat. They have lost almost all of its ground in Iraq and are being marginalized in Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon. They have to hide in the mountains of Pakistan for pete’s sake. Not one attack has been carried out on our soil since 9/11 because of Bush and our countries awakening to the fact that we can no longer treat this enemy like a common criminal but as a real enemy in a real war.

And what do the two Democrat nominees want to do? Hillary:

The most important part of Hillary’s plan is the first: to end our military engagement in Iraq’s civil war and immediately start bringing our troops home. As president, one of Hillary’s first official actions would be to convene the Joint Chiefs of Staff, her Secretary of Defense, and her National Security Council. She would direct them to draw up a clear, viable plan to bring our troops home starting with the first 60 days of her Administration.

Obama:

Obama will immediately begin to remove our troops from Iraq. He will remove one to two combat brigades each month, and have all of our combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months. Obama will make it clear that we will not build any permanent bases in Iraq. He will keep some troops in Iraq to protect our embassy and diplomats; if al Qaeda attempts to build a base within Iraq, he will keep troops in Iraq or elsewhere in the region to carry out targeted strikes on al Qaeda.

It’s crystal clear we are winning in Iraq. Their military is gaining the much needed training and confidence to defend their country on their own. Hell, as DJ said above, some of their units surpassed our own Army in deploying quickly to hot spots. Politically the PM has solidified support by taking the fight to renegade Shiites which enabled Sunnis to come back to the political process.

Its working. Slowly. And with a few bumps. But its working.

But they want to run, and run as fast as they can before the job is done.

And guaranteed, if we do that, our enemy will take advantage of that and no “quick reaction force” based in Okinawa or elsewhere will be able to do anything about it. Only another invasion and another unnecessary large battle in this War on Terror will do that.

All unnecessary. Just let our troops finish training the Iraqi’s, and have the patience to see the political reconciliation through to the finish.