Surge Success

The Surge is succeeding and this is bad news for Democrats. They have staked so much on failure in Iraq that I can’t see them rejoicing should we win. They missed the significance of the Surge by focusing on the 25,000 additional troops instead of the change in strategy. We will no longer tolerate Iranian interference and Sadr death squads, and much more important, neither will the Iraqi Government. What’s more we are now getting tough with our ally Pakistan. Musharraf will no longer be able to look the other way as the Taliban and al Qaeda operate in and out of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas along the Afghan border.

Have you heard the Surge is succeeding? Probably not, the MSM is as heavily invested in defeat as the Democrats, their obsessive compulsion to paint the most dismal picture of the war demonstrates this. Nevertheless the good news is out there in the New Media so let me give you a rundown on developments for a seven day period begining March 1st as reported by Bill Roggio at The Third Rail.

We moved into Sadr City permanently and Muqtada has fled to Iran. We captured the Taliban Defense Minister Mullah Obaidullah Akhund in Pakistan. Bill notes:

Pakistan has a history of making arrests and conducting strikes on Taliban and al-Qaeda camps when the political situation suits it. The arrest of Obaidullah occurred as the US and Britain are pressuring Pakistan to take meaningful action against the Taliban and al-Qaeda camps, leaders and operatives inside its borders.

We’ve captured the leader of a Jaysh Al-Mahdi cell that manufactured IEDs. Abdullah Latif al-Jaburi, aka Abu Abdullah, is believed to be captured. He was the second in command of Islamic State in Iraq, Al Qaeda’s political front organization. Special Iraqi Army Forces captured a Mahdi Army weapons smuggler. 11 United States Armed Forces personnel and 18 Iraqi security force personnel have been killed. 278 civilians have been killed, mostly Shia pilgrims. 193 insurgents have been killed and 426 captured and or detained. 140 Al Qaeda prisoners escaped custody however all but 47 were recaptured. 34 hostages were freed. For this period Iraqis suffered over 95% of the deaths in Iraq, not counting the dead terrorist who could have come from anywhere.

Politically Iraq will use the upcoming summit to pressure Syria to stop the flow of weapons and Jihadist. The Anbar Salvation Council, a coalition of 26 of Anbar's 31 tribes, is helping us fight Al Qaeda in that troubled region. The powerful Dulaimi tribe has also been reported to have turned against Al Qaeda. Over 10,000 employees from the Ministry of the Interior "who were found to have tortured prisoners, accepted bribes or had ties to militias" have been dismissed. Local sheikhs in Diyala may be organizing against al-Qaeda and its Islamic State in Iraq.

According to Bill since the launch of Operation Achilles 10 to 50 Taliban fighters are killed in every engagement with few Coalition casualties. “Coalition forces decimate Taliban formations whenever they mass in the open.” In Iraq Sadr’s on the run, Al Qaeda looses senior commanders on a regular basis, our casualties are light, very light, and if we pull out now we will really look incredibly weak in the Jihadis eyes. Yet the Dems talk of the “meat grinder in Iraq” and the need to save our “broken military”. Our “broken military” however is in no mood to accept defeat. In fact when most soldiers return home they are appalled at the defeatist media view of Iraq. As the surge continues the Dems are getting antsy, falling over each other to come up with some legislation that will kill the surge and insure defeat in Bush’s war.