However much the MSM tries to spin things to the contrary, the news from Iraq is good and getting better. It’s getting so if Obama wins, he won’t bring the troops home, he’ll just get more favorable coverage and take credit for the victory. The Washington Post declared Basra a victory for Moqtada al’Sadr, but in fact it was al-Sadr who lost and is now backing down; now, because Nuri al’Maliki stood up to his fellow Shiites, Iraq’s largest Sunni party has come back into the government, Iraqis as a whole have rallied around the Prime Minister, and the government has earned considerable respect around the Muslim world. The Iraqi Security Forces performed well on the whole, and al’Maliki is now stronger at home and abroad than he was before, with greater credibility in dealing with other internal challenges, such as al’Qaeda holdouts in the Mosul area. Meanwhile, as the Los Angeles Times points out, the Muslim world is turning decisively on al’Qaeda; in part, that’s the result of the heavy damage we’ve done them, and in part, they’ve done it to themselves trying to respond to us. Peter Wehner is right: though our struggle isn’t over, we’ve made “enormous and heartening progress.”
After four years (roughly) of being ‘occupied’ I think the various Iraqi factions are starting to realize that the fastest way to rid themselves of foreign occupation is to get together, sit down, and cobble together a political situation they can all tolerate, if not love completely.
That’s an interesting thesis. If you’re right, then Iraq has come even further than I thought.