"Al Qaeda in Iraq is defeated,"

Dark_crow · Nov 2, 2007, 11:12 AM

Interestingly enough the mainstream media is still in the dark while bloggers who are following the situation are beginning to talk about the "final serious battlegrounds" of the war against al-Qaeda.

"Al Qaeda in Iraq is defeated," by what Jabouri says. He is the spokesman for the Iraqi Islamic Party and a member of the widespread and influential Jabouri Tribe.

Michael Yon : Online Magazine » Blog Archive » Iraqi Islamic Party says, “Al Qaeda is Defeated.”

EDIT: Al Qaeda in Iraq [They] are being hunted down and killed. Or, if they are lucky, captured by Americans.

Apparently he thinks better of America than does many of its citizens.

tomder55 · Nov 4, 2007, 01:23 AM

yes DC.... based on the news out of Pakistan yesterday ;Although Paki troops are putting a hit on the Taliban ,General Musharraf has taken the opportunity to decare Marshal law ;which makes me think I was a little too optimistic.

The biggest threat to Musharraf’s authority didn’t come from the Taliban, it came from his political standoff with the country’s chief justice, whom he dismissed on trumped-up corruption charges .It blew up in his face when mass protests were held and the Court reinstated the chief justice.BBC NEWS | South Asia | Pakistan's top judge reinstated

What is happening in Pakistan is a military coup . The military has not exactly been pleased with the attacks on the jihadists ,so I expect that there will be a draw down from that front in exchange for their cooperation in the coup.

Right now the news is coming in rapidly and the dynamics may yet change again by the time I log on tomorrow. But it is a nice day for a hike . See ya.

tomder55 · Nov 4, 2007, 02:30 AM

Quote:

The Petraeus Curve
Serious success in Iraq is not being recognised as it should be
Is no news good news or bad news? In Iraq, it seems good news is deemed no news. There has been striking success in the past few months in the attempt to improve security, defeat al-Qaeda sympathisers and create the political conditions in which a settlement between the Shia and the Sunni communities can be reached. This has not been an accident but the consequence of a strategy overseen by General David Petraeus in the past several months. While summarised by the single word “surge” his efforts have not just been about putting more troops on the ground but also employing them in a more sophisticated manner. This drive has effectively broken whatever alliances might have been struck in the past by terrorist factions and aggrieved Sunnis. Cities such as Fallujah, once notorious centres of slaughter, have been transformed in a remarkable time.

Indeed, on every relevant measure, the shape of the Petraeus curve is profoundly encouraging. It is not only the number of coalition deaths and injuries that has fallen sharply (October was the best month for 18 months and the second-best in almost four years), but the number of fatalities among Iraqi civilians has also tumbled similarly. This process started outside Baghdad but now even the capital itself has a sense of being much less violent and more viable. As we report today, something akin to a normal nightlife is beginning to re-emerge in the city. As the pace of reconstruction quickens, the prospects for economic recovery will be enhanced yet further. With oil at record high prices, Iraq should be an extremely prosperous nation and in a position to start planning for its future with confidence.

None of this means that all the past difficulties have become history. A weakened al-Qaeda will be tempted to attempt more spectacular attacks to inflict substantial loss of life in an effort to prove that it remains in business. Although the tally of car bombings and improvised explosive devices has fallen back sharply, it would only take one blast directed at an especially large crowd or a holy site of unusual reverence for the headlines about impending civil war to be allowed another outing. The Government headed by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has become more proactive since the summer, but must immediately take advantage of these favourable conditions. The supposed representatives of the Iraqi people in Baghdad need to show both responsibility and creativity if the country's potential is to be realised.

The current achievements, and they are achievements, are being treated as almost an embarrassment in certain quarters. The entire context of the contest for the Democratic nomination for president has been based on the conclusion that Iraq is an absolute disaster and the first task of the next president is to extricate the United States at maximum speed. Democrats who voted for the war have either repudiated their past support completely (John Edwards) or engaged in a convoluted partial retraction (Hillary Clinton). Congressional Democrats have spent most of this year trying (and failing) to impose a timetable for an outright exit. In Britain, in a somewhat more subtle fashion admittedly, Gordon Brown assumed on becoming the Prime Minister that he should send signals to the voters that Iraq had been “Blair's War”, not one to which he or Britain were totally committed.

All of these attitudes have become outdated. There are many valid complaints about the manner in which the Bush Administration and Donald Rumsfeld, in particular, managed Iraq after the 2003 military victory. But not to recognise that matters have improved vastly in the year since Mr Rumsfeld's resignation from the Pentagon was announced and General Petraeus was liberated would be ridiculous. Politicians on both sides of the Atlantic have to appreciate that Iraq is no longer, as they thought, an exercise in damage limitation but one of making the most of an opportunity. The instinct of too many people is that if Iraq is going badly we should get out because it is going badly and if it is getting better we should get out because it is getting better. This is a catastrophic miscalculation. Iraq is getting better. That is good, not bad, news.

The Petraeus Curve -Times Online

Dark_crow · Nov 4, 2007, 07:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomder55

yes DC.... based on the news out of Pakistan yesterday ;Although Paki troops are putting a hit on the Taliban ,General Musharraf has taken the opportunity to decare Marshal law ;which makes me think I was a little too optimistic.

The biggest threat to Musharraf’s authority didn’t come from the Taliban, it came from his political standoff with the country’s chief justice, whom he dismissed on trumped-up corruption charges .It blew up in his face when mass protests were held and the Court reinstated the chief justice.BBC NEWS | South Asia | Pakistan's top judge reinstated

What is happening in Pakistan is a military coup . The military has not exactly been pleased with the attacks on the jihadists ,so I expect that there will be a draw down from that front in exchange for their cooperation in the coup.

Right now the news is coming in rapidly and the dynamics may yet change again by the time I log on tomorrow. But it is a nice day for a hike . See ya.

Pakistanis Oppose US Fighting al Qaeda in Pakistan -- 11/02/2007

Yeah, news is much gloomier there than in Iraq. According to Monisha Bansal, a CNSNews.com Staff Writer Steven Kull, the director of WorldPublicOpinion.org. believes a recent poll shows that "The Pakistani people are not enthusiastic about Musharraf, do not support his recent crackdown on fundamentalists, and are lukewarm at best about going after al Qaeda or the Taliban in western Pakistan,"

Additionally, the International Institute for Strategic Studies the IISS, “…noted that "Pakistan is unlikely ever to be able to satisfy U.S. expectations," in regards to rooting out Taliban and al Qaeda operations.

"It is preoccupied by the fear that if the extremist problem were ever resolved, Washington would abandon it, as occurred at the end of the war against the Russians in Afghanistan in 1989," the IISS added.



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