Ralph Peters’ column in this morning’s NY Post is today’s must reading. He says that “To a military professional, the tactical progress made in Iraq over the last few months is impressive. To a member of Congress, it’s an annoyance.” I couldn’t summarize it better.

It’s amazing what has been accomplished since the start of Operation Arrowhead Ripper. Sadly, to many politicians, it’s been treated like it’s the plague. What is undeniable, though, is that the more people like Ralph Peters and Michael Yon write about the subject, the more likely a page will turn and a new set of facts will have to be dealt with.

A trusted source in Baghdad confirmed several key developments that’ve gone largely unreported. Here’s what’s been happening while “journalists” focused on John Edwards’ haircuts:

• Al Qaeda lost the support of Iraq’s Sunni Arabs. The fanatics over-reached: They murdered popular sheiks, kidnapped tribal women for forced marriages, tried to outlaw any form of joy and (perhaps most fatally, given Iraqi habits) banned smoking. In response, the Arab version of the Marlboro Man rose up and started cutting terrorist throats.
• Since the tribes who once were fighting against us turned on al Qaeda, our troops not only captured the senior Iraqi in the organization, which made brief headlines, but also killed the three al Turki brothers, major-league pinch-hitters al Qaeda sent into Iraq to save the game.
• Oh, and it emerged that the Iraqi “head” of the terrorists was just a front, in the words of one Army officer, Omar al Baghdadi was “a Wizard of Oz-like creation designed to give an impression that al Qaeda has Iraqis in its senior ranks.”
• Al Qaeda has been pushed right across Anbar, from the once Wild West to the province’s eastern fringes. The terrorists are still dug in elsewhere, from the Diyala River Valley to a few Baghdad neighborhoods, but, to quote that senior officer again, “our forces have been taking out their leaders faster than they can find qualified replacements.”

If this were happening a generation ago, these would be front page, above-the-fold headlines. Unfortunately, these developments are treated like a nuisance by the NY Times and other Agenda Media outlets. Long gone are the days of “the people’s right to know.” Now it’s a matter of fitting cherry-picked semi-irrelevant truths into the Agenda Media’s articles.

When Gen. Petraeus testifies before Congress in September, the filter will be removed. Harry Reid and John Murtha won’t be able to spin what’s actually been happening. To be certain, they’ll attempt to spin Gen. Petraeus’ facts. They’ll take their lumps doing that, though. It won’t be pretty for ‘Gen. Reid’ and ‘Col. Murtha’.

• It isn’t only al Qaeda taking serious hits. After briefly showing the flag, Muqtada al-Sadr fled back to Iran again, trailed by his senior deputies. Mookie’s No. 2 even moved his family to Iran. Why? Though he’s been weak in the past, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is now green-lighting Iraqi operations against the Jaish al Mahdi, the Mookster’s “Mahdi Army.” With its descent into criminality and terror, the Mahdi Army, too, has been losing support among Iraqis, in this case, among Shias. And Iraq’s security forces increasingly carry the fight to the militia:
• The Iraqi Police Tactical Support Unit in Nasiriyah came under attack by Mahdi Army elements accustomed to intimidating their enemies. Supported by a brave (and tiny) U.S. advisory team, the police commandos fought them off. Instead of a walkover, the militia thugs hit a wall, and got hammered by airstrikes, for good measure. Then the Iraqi police counter-attacked. The Mahdi Army force begged for negotiations.
• In Mosul, Iraqi army and police units stuck to their guns through a series of tough combat engagements, with the result that massive arms caches were seized from the terrorists and insurgents. In Kirkuk, Iraqi police reacted promptly to last week’s gruesome car-bombing, in time to stop two other car bombs from reaching their intended targets.
• In Baghdad, the surge isn’t only about American successes, Iraqi security and intelligence forces conducted a series of hard-hitting operations against both al Qaeda and Iran-backed Special Group terrorists.

These events are becoming the rule, not the exception under Gen. Petraeus’ brilliant strategy and Gen. Lynch’s and Gen. Gaskin’s execution of Gen. Petraeus’ plan.

Let’s not underestimate the impact that the Sunnis turning on AQI terrorists and Iraqi military victories over Sadr’s Mahdi Army will have on Iraqi security. This will trigger a sustained and dramatic drop in civilian casualties. When it becomes apparent that sectarian violence is subsiding, American support for Gen. Petraeus’ strategy will increase.

Gen. Dave Petraeus and his subordinate commanders are by far the best team we’ve ever had in place in that wretched country. They’re doing damned near everything right, with austere resources, despite the surge. And they’re being abandoned by your elected leaders.

Isn’t it time we demanded that our ‘leaders’ fall in line with Gen. Petraeus? Isn’t it time we told them they’d better pay attention to this ‘annoyance’?

Technorati Tags: David Petraeus, Rick Lynch, Walter Gaskins, Operation Arrowhead Ripper, AQI, Mahdi Army, Harry Reid, John Murtha, Defeatocrats

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

1. Great story, I’m going to link to it right now.

   My blog is being attacked by stupid liberals giving all of us a headache…come on over and help get rid of them!!!

   Comment by The Game — July 26, 2007 @ 6:34 am

2. I linked to Peters’ column, and will to this post, as soon as I finish this comment.

   I’m not so convinced that U.S. successes would have been positively reported “a generation ago.”

   My memories of news go back to the 1960s. I don’t remember U.S. troops being shown in a particularly positive light then. If anything, I see less media demonization of American soldiers now.

   The basic America-is-bad attitude doesn’t seem to have changed, sadly.

   Comment by Norski — July 29, 2007 @ 2:47 pm