California Conservative

It isn’t that Anna Nicole Smith’s death isn’t important, but when comparing it to a war against terrorism, the latter has more significance. The problem is, of course, that Americans can understand the sordid details of a woman who ran her life pathetically into the ground more easily than they can understand the intricacies of a war that the leftist media wants to thwart.

Nonetheless, there are lots of good reports coming from Iraq. The Associated Press reported yesterday that Abu Ayyub al-Masri, who replaced Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as al-Qaeda’s leader in Iraq after his death in June 2006, is reportedly “constantly on the move” to avoid capture by Iraqi or Coalition forces, according to al-Masri’s top aid. The aide was among two arrested yesterday in a sting by Iraqi forces. The two suspects ran a gas station south of Baghdad and gave their black market profits to fund al-Qaeda cells. Why is this significant?

First, the arrests were orchestrated by Iraqi forces, not Coalition forces. Secondly, the arrests break up a source of funding to al-Qaeda operations in Iraq and the Sunni insurgency. Thirdly, Iraqi citizens are turning in the bad guys. Most importantly, it is clear that top al-Qaeda leader al-Masri is on the run in the same manner as his predecessor al-Zaraqawi just weeks before he was killed by Iraqi/Coalition forces.

In May of 2006, al-Qaeda admitted that it was losing in Iraq and al-Zarqawi was on the move to avoid detection. After a string of US and Iraqi successes last spring and summer, the pendulum swung back al-Qaeda’s way. What happened? Democrats running in the November 2006 mid-term elections gave aid and comfort to the enemy with their constant inflammatory rhetoric against the war effort, leading both the American people and al-Qaeda (and Iran, and the Sunni insurgency) to believe we were losing in Iraq. Now the pendulum is swinging back and al-Qaeda is once again crumbling.

Next, the special Iraqi Army forces captured a corrupt Ministry of Health senior official and Coalition forces killed at least 20 terrorists in the past two days. The arrested official, with ties to a radical militia, is believed responsible for orchestrating recent mass kidnappings and murders of Iraqi government officials at the Ministry of Health, as well as many Iraqi civilians.

Critics may point to the capture Ministry of Health official as a failure of democracy in Iraq, but it is in fact a tremendous sign that Iraq is cleaning out its corrupt staff and putting an end to the infiltration of the government… and they are doing it with Iraqi troops. The good Iraqi officials are turning on the corrupt ones, even at the risk of their lives. This is a monumental success for the Iraqis.

Multi-National Force-Iraq commanding general Maj. Gen. Kenneth Hunzeker this week praised Iraqi police as courageous, committed and well-trained.

“One of the challenges the Iraqi Police faced was a reputation of being hopelessly corrupt, ineffective, that won’t fight to protect the Iraqis and is hopelessly sectarian and brutal.”

“Four months into my command, I’ve come to realize that these warnings were more of an overstatement than reality. There are still challenges to overcome in training and equipping the Iraqi Police, who are courageous, and well-trained and committed to defending Iraq’s citizens.”

“Iraqi Police have come a long way since 2003.”

“Many assumed that because Iraq was literally a police-state that the police under Saddam were professional and efficient and merely serving under bad political leadership. Instead, we found the Iraqi Police had no concept of active patrolling and community policing; but rather sat in police stations waiting for victims to come to the station to report a crime.”

“Today’s Iraqi police force is well on its way to becoming the polar opposite of the predecessor.”

“It’s this kind of professional training that was almost unthinkable four years ago.”

The Government of Iraq placed goals of training policemen and women has been exceeded by more than 19,000, putting the Iraqi Police at more than 200,000 strong. MG Hunzeker continued:

“In 2004, we all looked in dismay as Iraqi police abandoned their posts as angry mobs [formed] in the cities throughout Iraq. Now Iraqi policemen frequently will work four-day shifts, sleeping in any corner of the station they can find.”

“Many of the officers have been lost while preventing suicide bombers from killing numbers of Iraqis in marketplaces or mosques. Despite being a consistent target of a terrorist attack, we typically see 10 volunteers for every job vacancy within the Iraqi Police.”

“No tool is more important to a burgeoning democracy than a well trained police force capable of establishing the rule of law in Iraq and protecting the Iraqi people. Given how far the Iraqi Police force has come in the past four years, I believe that with time Iraq will be able to overcome the twin scourges of terrorism and sectarian violence.”

HOOAH! The significance of this progress cannot be overstated. Some quickly criticize Iraqis as being lazy and “just not wanting democracy enough”, but in reality, the evolution of a new, professional police force emerging from the ash heap of Saddam’s tyrannical legacy is nothing short of miraculous.

Even Newsweek recently reported that Iraq’s economy is booming:

It may sound unreal, given the daily images of carnage and chaos. But for a certain plucky breed of businessmen, there’s good money to be made in Iraq. Consider Iraqna, the leading mobile-phone company. For sure, its quarterly reports seldom make for dull reading. Despite employees kidnapped, cell-phone towers bombed, storefronts shot up and a huge security budget—up to four guards for each employee—the company posted revenues of $333 million in 2005. This year, it’s on track to take in $520 million. The U.S. State Department reports that there are now 7.1 million mobile-phone subscribers in Iraq, up from just 1.4 million two years ago.

Civil war or not, Iraq has an economy, and—mother of all surprises—it’s doing remarkably well. Real estate is booming. Construction, retail and wholesale trade sectors are healthy, too.

This is just a bit of the progress happening in Iraq. The American media is expert at ignoring the success and minimizing the good news, but when it comes down to it, no passing, sexy Hollywood news story can compete for relevance like progress in Iraq.

Cross-posted @: Bottom Line Up Front

This entry was posted on Friday, February 9th, 2007 at 2:47 pm and is filed under Author: Amy Proctor, Hollywood, Iraq, Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.