Victory Panic

Via Memeorandum I come to this from some Kossack:

As U.S. casualties have continued to drop, many people on the anti-Bush side of the aisle have begun to quietly panic in recent days over this question: "Could George W. Bush and Frederick Kagan have possibly been right about the surge?"

Panic?  Dean Barnett, writing at The Weekly Standard, has fun and facts in response:

Now, Brandon Friedman doesn’t fit the stereotype of the typical Kos Kid typing away in fury in his mother’s basement. In truth, that stereotype isn’t accurate at all. The typical Kos Kid is middle-aged, has some disposable income, and in some cases left his mother’s basement months ago.

But even having dispelled that myth, it’s worth pointing out exactly who Brandon Friedman is. Friedman is the vice-president of the anti-Iraq war organization VoteVets.org. He served in the infantry in both Iraq and Afghanistan before coming home in 2003. He’s also the author of a book called “The War I Always Wanted.”

Blackfive provides a personal view of "the surge":

The Surge is not our strategy and he is correct that it is not responsible for the tremendous success in Baghdad, the surrounding belts, Al Anbar, Diyala and now even in some of the Shia tribal areas as well. Our strategy is Counter-Insurgency (COIN) and the additional troops, known as the Surge, are simply part of that effort along with every other military member and civilian over there. Read LTC Kilcullen for an elegant primer on COIN in the Small Wars Journal.

COIN is completely different than the nation-building and national institution-building that we had been doing since toppling Saddam and up until the beginning of this year. We had hunkered down on the FOBs heading out on patrols and then back inside the wire. Now we cleared areas and then stayed and lived side by side with the Iraqis, and once they saw that we were staying they "awakened" and determined that al Qaeda brought death and destruction and the Americans brought electricity and water, not to mention security.

Friedman's main point is that it was Sadr's announcement of a 6 month cease fire that is responsible for all this peace breaking out, not the Surge. Well I explained that the Surge is a straw target, and while Mookie's announcement was a net positive, let's look at why he did it. Once we began shining a bright light on the fact that Iran was responsible for a good bit of the slaughter in Iraq, they had to start being a little cautious. They talk a big game, but they don't want to be caught in any particularly heinous casus belli, since they know W has an itchy trigger finger.

Sadr's and the other Shia militia served a purpose when Iran was working hard to cause an outright civil war that would eject us from the country. Unfortunately for them we managed to shift fire and engage in COIN before they managed to get a hot war going. Sadr announced his cease fire in August after thousands of his thugs and every other flavor of scumbag in Iraq began dying in bunches. We began offensive operations in many places we had simply left to fester before and many brave and foolish gunmen became dead tangos. Hurrah!

Still more at QandO.

Comments

[Patrick R. Sullivan]

I'm just finishing reading 'The Siege of Mecca', about the takeover of the Grand Mosque in 1979 by extremist Wahabbis (and, no I'm not being redundant). Here's an interview with the author.

In addition to shedding some light on what Al Qaeda is really all about, the book allows you to relive those exciting days of yesteryear when, thanks to Jimmy Carter's fecklessness and stupidity, in a matter of a few months we also saw: 1. The hostage crisis in Iran, 2. The burning of our embassy in Islamabad, 3. The looting of our embassy in Tripoli, Libya, and 4...several other attacks on American installations throughout the Islamic world.

Not a happy read for the Bush Created a Terrorist Recruitment Dream for bin Laden crowd.

[Other Tom]

A couple of months ago when I invaded Crazy Larry's site I did so as a moonbat worrying over what the hell "our" strategy would be in the event of actual success in Iraq. All the regulars--who truly seem to be a semi-literate lot--rushed nervously to assure me that success was not possible, and that I was just falling for the administration propaganda. There and elsewhere (e.g. in the office of the Senate Majority Leader) good news is utterly unacceptable, and signs of it are a cause for panic.

And I am loving every second of it.

[Clarice]

OT, our own agent provocateur

[Sue]

OT,

You didn't? LOL. I bet they ate you up over there. Poor soul worried about good news out of Iraq. I love it.

[Ann]

Y'all will love this:

The man who controls the House purse strings to fund the war in Iraq said the President’s “surge” was showing recent signs of success because U.S. soldiers have “run out of people to kill.”

“One of the reason we’ve had incidents of violence, sectarian violence go down is because they are running out of people to kill,” said the Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee Rep. David Obey (D.-Wisc.) at a National Press Club luncheon Monday afternoon.

Obey on Iraq: ‘We’ve Run Out of People to Kill’

[Bill in AZ]

"we've run out of people to kill"

heh heh - more like mookie finally spotted a tiny red laser dot aimed at something that would make his promised afterlife problematic...

[kim]

Blackfive is right as far as he goes. Muqtada co-operated after being outplayed in the spiritual realm by Sistani. It is Canon Andrew White and Sistani who pushed most for the fatwah against violence promulgated by the spiritual leaders of Iraq in late August. It was Mahdi Army elements which violently and symbolically violated that fatwah and provoked Sadr into his six month truce. Since then, violence has nearly vanished, steadily.

In Sistani We Trust. And to Canon White we are grateful. Yeah, Petraeus was more than just the right man in the right place.

Jihad has moved east into the Northwest Territories. Could be al-Qaeda's last stand? Who are those guys, anyway?
==============================

[Sue]

Ann,

From your link...

He accused President Bush of “manufacturing controversy” by vetoing spending bills that have been delivered to him above his original budget request. Obey said Bush was vetoing bills to boost himself in the polls by gaining support from his extreme right-wing base.

This is what I love about liberals. Their irony meter is turned off.

[Rick Ballard]

Congress strives desperately to earn even more contempt.

Boy, that Porkbusters BS sure had an impact...

[Other Tom]

Gee--and all this time I kind of thought "running out of people to kill" was the whole object of fighting.

Do these people have a clue of any kind?

[Clarice]

Is that a trick question?

[PeterUK]

"“One of the reason we’ve had incidents of violence, sectarian violence go down is because they are running out of people to kill,” said the Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee Rep. David Obey (D.-Wisc.)"

Strangely enough,that seems to be the general pattern of wars,one side runs out of people who want to get killed,war over!

[MayBee]

It's nice to see them admitting they've been using the difficulty of the war for partisan political advantage.

[MayBee]

NEVER FEAR!!
They have found their angle:

BREAKING NEWS: 2007 has become the deadliest year for U.S. troops in Iraq, according to an Associated Press count that shows at least 852 have died — the highest annual toll since the war began in March 2003. Some 850 troops died in 2004.

All fresh and new and ready to report this Tuesday morning.