AQI Running Out Of ‘Home Turf’
That’s the clear message of this Jack Kelly article. While Harry Reid keeps all of the senators awake to vote on unilateral surrender, the truth about Operation Arrowhead Ripper is making its way to the American people. Here’s a sample of the magnitude of failure AQI is experiencing:
Radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt devoted his show last Wednesday to the (overwhelmingly negative) opinions of Iraq war veterans on the demands of Democrats that U.S. troops be pulled out. One call was from “Bruce in Upland,” whose son is a soldier currently serving in Iraq. “I will speak for my son who right now is bored out of his mind in Ramadi, because he hasn’t heard a shot fired in combat now in about six or seven weeks,” Bruce said.
For every time that John Murtha whines about how “our boys are caught in the middle of a civil war”, another “Bruce from Upland” relates how the surge has worked. But it isn’t just what has happened. It’s about why it’s happening:
Mr. Yon was with U.S. troops in the Spring of 2005, when they fought insurgents in the Baqouba suburb of Buhritz. Among “the most proficient at killing our people,” he said, were the 1920s Revolution Brigades. In April the 1920s Revolution Brigades attacked al Qaida and asked for U.S. help. Last week Mr. Yon returned to Buhritz with a leader of the group, “Abu Ali.”
Mr. Yon asked Abu Ali why his group switched sides. “Al Qaida is an abomination of Islam,” he replied. “Cutting off heads, stealing peoples money, kidnapping…every type of torture they have done.”
According to Yon’s reporting, the 1920s Revolution Brigades were an efficient killing machine. Now that they’ve switched alliances, AQI has to fight two proficient killing machines: MNF-I forces and the 1920s Revolution Brigades. That’s sometimes referred to as being trapped in a hopeless situation.
The information coming out of Baqouba and Ramadi isn’t likely to improve for AQI anytime soon, either:
Al Qaida’s brutality has alienated the overwhelming majority of Sunnis as well as the Shias who were the primary targets of its attacks. When the U.S. can provide them with protection, ordinary people are turning on al Qaida with a vengeance. Most of al Qaida’s leaders and many of its foot soldiers escaped from Baqouba, and probably will try to establish another “capital” elsewhere. But they’re running out of places to go.
AQI forces were the people responsible for inciting sectarian violence. As they’re put on the run, the likelihood of them inciting sectarian violence drops proportionately. That isn’t likely to happen anytime soon.
On another front, success is plainly seen in northern Iraq:
Now at full strength, the U.S. troop surge in Iraq is showing “definitive progress” and the number of forces serving in Iraq’s Multinational Division North could be halved by summer 2009, U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Benjamin R. Mixon said today. A reduction of U.S. forces under the general’s command could begin as early as January 2008, he told Pentagon reporters via videoconference.
Mixon, commander of both Multinational Division North and the U.S. Army’s 25th Infantry Division, is responsible for six Iraqi provinces in northern Iraq, including the city of Baqubah, site of the ongoing Operation Arrowhead Ripper. He said he has given Army Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, commander, Multinational Corps Iraq, a plan indicated a possible reduction of force in Multinational Division North during 2008.
We’re pulling out of Iraq why? This doesn’t sound anything like the stories that the Democrats and their allies in the Agenda Media feed us. In fact, it’s quite the opposite of what we’re fed by the elected ‘anti-war activists’.
Mixon is quite outspoken in his opinion:
Mixon said the current debate over troop withdrawal should revolve around reaching a strategic “end state.” “It seems to me that we should first decide what we want the end state to be in Iraq, and how is that end state important to the United States of America, to this region and to the world, and then determine how we can reach that end state, and how much time that will take,” he said. “To me, that seems to be the most important thing, because there will be consequences of a rapid withdrawal from Iraq.
Gen. Reid’s Round Heel Brigades aren’t concerned with winning or end states. They’re more worried about ‘protecting our troops’ than what we leave behind. Gen. Mixon has an opinion on ‘Gen. Reid’s’ plan but it isn’t flattering to Reid:
“It cannot be a strategy based on, ‘Well, we need to leave,’” he added. “That’s not a strategy, that’s a withdrawal.”
EXACTLY RIGHT!!!
It’s time that they got the crowbar out, pried Harry Reid’s and John Murtha’s minds open and let new, and accurate, information sink into their minds. It’s time we had an honest debate, not the type of thing that’s too often called debate but which is closer to a food fight or a shouting match. It’s time we banned childish petulant senators like Jim Webb from joining the debate. The last thing we need is a senator who isn’t interested in the truth but is driven into fits of rage because he isn’t getting what he wants when he wants it.
It’s time we sent a message to Gen. Reid’s Round Heel Brigades. It’s time we said that we demand that they give Gens. Petraeus, Lynch, Odierno and Mixon a chance to succeed.
It’s time we sent the message that we demand it because it’s the right thing to do.
Technorati Tags: Michael Yon, David Petraeus, Rick Lynch, Ray Odierno, Benjamin Mixon, Ramadi, Baqouba, AQI, Counterinsurgency, Harry Reid, John Murtha, Defeatocrats, Agenda Media, Operation Arrowhead Ripper
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog