A Defining Moment...

Hat tip, Scott:

Another page in the scrapbook has a clear acetate pouch. Stuffed inside is a thick, folded sheet of blue paper. An Iraqi ballot I stole on January 30th 2005.

The sound of mortar fire fills my ears. The desk dissolves. Suddenly, I’m kneeling on a road, a palm grove to my front. Iraq. Election Day 2005.



The bullets are flying.

My squad runs through the searing heat and forms a wall of flesh and Kevlar between the incoming fire and the citizens standing in line behind us. They’ve turned out in their finest clothes to wait for the opportunity to cast a vote. For most, this moment is a defining one in their lives. They’ve never had a voice before. This means something to them, and they have used the moment as an object lesson for their children. They appear nervous and take photos. The kids stand with them in line, viewing first hand this revolution in Iraqi civics.

As they came to line up earlier that morning, the men thanked us and clasped their hands over their heads, striking a triumphant pose. Some of the women cried. The kids were on their best behavior.

The gunfire began that afternoon. Insurgents started to shoot them. My unit ran to the road and formed a protective position between the killers and the citizens going to the polls. As we scanned the palm grove in front of us, bullets cracked and whined, then mortars start thumping around us. My squad pushed into the palm grove. I stayed on the road, overseeing their movement and coordinating the heavy fire from the Bradleys.

The firefight ebbs. The mortar fire ceases. A few last stray rounds streak past. A cry from behind causes me to turn. Lying in the road is a young Iraqi woman. I run over to help. She’s caught a round just below her temple. Her stunning beauty has been ruined forever.

She cries, “Paper! Paper” over and over until the ambulance arrives to take her away. An old lady emerges from the schoolhouse-turned voting site, sheets of blue paper in hand. She gives one to the wounded girl, who clutches it to her like a prized possession even as the ambulance carries her away.

The ballot was her voice. All she wanted was a chance to exercise it, just once, before she died.

The old woman returns to the school house, but drops another ballot along the way. It drifts in a gentle breeze across the bloodstained asphalt. I stoop down and pick it up. It is all in Arabic, and I have no idea what each set of candidates advocate. That’s not my place, and it doesn’t really matter. I helped make this day happen. This ballot represents the reason why we’re here, why my friends had to die.

Carefully, I fold the ballot up and put it in my pocket. Even though I was 29 at the time , I’d only voted once.

I had taken something so precious for granted for far too long.

Read the rest...from beginning to end.

A Brief Timeline of President Obama’s Benchmark Statements on the “War of Necessity”

The Taliban is waiting out the clock, hoping to win the war in public perception and opinion, and through the media. Will Obama waver or show resolve?

A Victory: National Sovereignty Day

Army Capt. Rich Turvey, commander of 2nd Battalion, 20th Field Artillery Regiment, signs over Joint Security Station Salaam to Iraqi army 1st Lt. Jassim Abbas at a transfer ceremony near Numaniyah, Iraq, June 20, 2009. In accordance with the U.S.-Iraqi security agreement, Iraqi security forces took full ownership of security in their cities, towns and villages on June 30, 2009. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Joe Thompson

DoD:

CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE BASRA, Iraq, June 30, 2009 – In accordance with Article 5 of the security agreement between the U.S. and Iraqi governments, Iraqi security forces now have full ownership of security in their cities, towns and villages.

“As of today, U.S. combat forces will turn over the security of cities to Iraqi security forces, and begin a period where our primary security role is one of training, mentoring and advising the ISF,” said Army Maj. Gen. Rick Nash, Multinational Division South commander. “Today’s ISF is capable, ready and dedicated to keeping the people of Iraq safe.”

Nash praised the dedication of the Iraqi security forces as well as the proficiency of U.S. and coalition forces, and attributed the successful implementation of the security agreement to their actions.

“Iraq’s successes and significantly improved security are a testament of the ISF’s progress and its dedication to Iraq’s sovereignty,” Nash said. “The Iraqis have made strides in their ability to protect their citizens, and our brave soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines are doing a great job in helping them build both their security forces and their civil capacity.”

Though U.S. and coalition forces no longer will inhabit Iraqi cities, they will continue to support the Iraqi security forces within the parameters of the security agreement, Nash said.

“Leaving the cities does not mean that we are backing off,” he said. “Instead, it indicates our confidence in the Iraqis to safeguard their own citizens. Likewise, the security agreement is a tangible, positive sign of a mature relationship between two sovereign nations.”

In accordance with agreement, U.S. forces will withdraw from all Iraqi territory by Dec. 31, 2011. Today will be remembered as a significant step toward the realization of that objective, Nash noted.

“So, on this important day of transition in Iraq, our two nations move forward together as friends, with the shared goal of the safety and security of the Iraqi people,” he said. “I am very encouraged about the future success of Iraq.”

Iraqi security forces celebrate during the withdrawal of U.S. troops in Baghdad June 30, 2009.
REUTERS/Ahmed Malik

Also, read my post on 6 wounded warriors who returned to Iraq last week to achieve closure.

And another post on the topic matter.

Bush 'n Boots

Booting up: George W. Bush may have had shoes thrown at him in Iraq, but the president's invasion left behind one footwear trend: cowboy boots, or "boose" as the locals call them. "I wear boose because they are American," one young man told Agence France-Presse. Most cowboy boots aren't made in the United States, though; instead, they are imported from Turkey, Italy, or, cheapest of all, China. Above, a vendor

cleans a cowboy boot at his shop in central Baghdad's Karada district on March 9. Photo: ALI YUSSEF/AFP/Getty Images

More of the photo essay at Foreign Policy.

Bush's Real Mission Accomplished

A U.S soldier shakes the hand of an Iraqi boy during a patrol in Baquba, in Diyala province some 65 km (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad, October 21, 2008.
REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic






Over the weekend, Curt posted a litany of successes going on over in Iraq within just the past week alone.

If not for alternative media and non-mainstream sources, you'd be hard-pressed to hear anything about the continued positive trend in Iraq. It's not that the information isn't there and isn't being covered and reported on by MSM (note the polls cited below are by ABC, BBC, and NHK); it's just that they aren't telegraphed as front-page newsworthy items, worth repeating over and over again until it gets hammered into people's subconscious.....like "Iraq is a failure" and "Iraq is in a civil war" mantras were repeated over and over...

The good news on Iraq IS a big deal. It IS important that it gets talked about and that the positive stories are repeated over and over and over again.

Investor's Business Daily:

A poll of average Iraqis conducted by ABC News, the BBC and Japan's NHK shows significant progress on virtually all fronts. Yet, we've heard nary a peep about it from anyone. Some 85% of respondents said their neighborhood security was "good," vs. 62% a year ago and just 43% in August of 2007. And 52% said security had gotten better in the last year — during the Bush-Petraeus "surge," which was widely ridiculed at the time as an unnecessary escalation of the Iraq War. Support for democracy jumped to 64%, a 21-percentage-point gain since 2007, according to a report on CNSNews.com. As for how Iraqis felt about the general state of affairs in Iraq, 58% called it "very good" or "quite good," up significantly from 43% last year and 22% in 2007. When asked what their concerns are today, Iraqis sound a lot like Americans: Jobs and prices are at the top of their list — not war, not security, not terrorism. In short, it sounds like we not only won the war, but the peace as well. And for those who cast a skeptical eye on the idea that any Islamic country could ever be democratized, it turns out the former President Bush is winning that debate too.

Read more »

Photo of the Week

RUSAFA SLIDE
U.S. Army Sgt. Stephen Covell, a native of Pacific Grove, Calif., along with an Iraqi girl go down a slide at the playground during the reopening of the Al-Moutasam Kindergarten March 3, 2009, in the Rusafa district of eastern Baghdad. Covell is a medic assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Troop, 5th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Multi-National Division-Baghdad. U.S. Army photo by Georges Aboumrad

A Bullet-Proof Character

"Physical and mental toughness are...essential [to] leadership. It's hard to lead from the front if you are in the rear of the formation."
- A Petraeus motto



CAMP NEW JERSEY, Kuwait (March 21, 2003) - Maj. Gen. David H. Petraeus (right), commanding general, 101st Airborne Division, (Air Assault) looks on as Lt. Gen. William S. Wallace, V Corps commanding general speaks to soldiers, following a missile attack drill Thursday afternoon.
Pfc. Joshua Hutcheson, 101st Airborne Division Public Affairs staff






Everyone is familiar with the story of how General Petraeus almost lost his life when he was shot through the chest during a live-fire training exercise. Well, the most detailed account I've come across thus far can be found in Thomas E. Ricks' The Gamble.

Read more »

President Obama's Camp Lejeune Speech was About How to Stay; Not When We'd Leave

The Marine audience at Camp Lejeune sit in wild, rapturous applause for President Barack Obama. (Photo by Gerry Broome / AP)

Barack Obama's campaign pledge, as written on his campaign website:

Obama will give his Secretary of Defense and military commanders a new mission in Iraq: ending the war.

George W. Bush esentially beat him to it. What he really means is, how can I bring the troops home, responsibly from Iraq?

"Let me say this as plainly as I can: by August 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end." -President Obama, February 27, 2009

Could this be a "read my lips" moment, for President Obama? Or a "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is" moment:

"And under the Status of Forces Agreement with the Iraqi government, I intend to remove all U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of 2011"

Notice the wiggle-room provided in the choice of a single word?


Last Friday, President Obama delivered a speech at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, declaring- not victory- but an end to combat operations in Iraq (ABC News link borrowed from Scott's post):

President Barack Obama consigned the Iraq war to history Friday, declaring he will end combat operations within 18 months and open a new era of diplomacy in the Middle East.

"Let me say this as plainly as I can: By August 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end," Obama told Marines who are about to deploy by the thousands to the other war front, Afghanistan.

Even so, Obama will leave the bulk of troops in place this year, contrary to hopes of Democratic leaders for a speedier pullout. And after combat forces withdraw, 35,000 to 50,000 will stay behind for an additional year and half of support and counterterrorism duties.

Just six weeks into office, Obama used blunt terms and a cast-in-stone promise to write the last chapter of a war that began six years ago.

The "last chapter"?!? "Cast-in-stone promise"??....? As Iraq War critic Thomas Ricks concludes in his new book, The Gamble, "the events for which the Iraq war will be remembered probably have not yet happened."


And as Ricks writes in his post:

The more I consider it, the more I think President Obama's Camp Lejeune speech last Friday was about how to stay in Iraq for a while, not about how to get out.

Read more »

Is the Anti-War Movement Happy or Sad?

A U.S. soldier watches as a statue of Iraq's President Saddam Hussein falls in central Baghdad April 9, 2003.
REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic

The withdrawal of U.S. forces is only made possible because of the trend in stability and success, which can be credited to the final 2 years of the previous Administration- not this current one.

And yes, basically President Obama is just riding the coattails of what was decided upon during the Bush Presidency:

The last of the U.S. troops will be in Iraq no later than Dec. 31, 2011. That’s the deadline set under an agreement the two countries sealed during George W. Bush’s presidency.

And no, I wouldn't believe him regarding the final withdrawal date of the last U.S. troops. The SOFA is flexible and dependent upon the situation on the ground.

Is President Obama taking credit for announcing a projection that he's not even responsible for? Remember his ever-shifting position on troop withdrawal during the campaign season?

Read Obama's Bush Vindication
The Bush Pullout

Why Our Military is So Hated Around the World

ENTIRE
entry at Flopping Aces.

Also blogging:
Parrothead Jeff

In the Middle of a Perilous Peace

On the Horizon
A U.S. Army Soldier from Charlie Troop, 2nd Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division out of Ft. Lewis, Wash., patrols a village during an operation south of Baqubah, Iraq, Oct. 4, 2007. U.S. Air Force photo

Michael Yon in November traveling with soldiers of the 2-4 Alpha of the 10th Mountain Division:

We rumbled into various neighborhoods in south Baghdad. Nothing was going on. No gun battles. No mushroom clouds from car bombs or IEDs. I wore the headset and the incessant radio alerts about units fighting here or there were completely absent. In the old days, while the Iraq war was hot, there was constant chatter about fighting, car bombs, snipers, name it. Today, there were no alerts at all. There was more chatter about the Kenyan sitting in front of me who had been in the Army for a couple years. The other soldiers said he should get automatic citizenship for volunteering to fight, and we all agreed. The soldier came straight from Kenya into our Army. Did not even pass GO, and suddenly was in Iraq.

On another day, I had lunch with a soldier from Ghana. He told me that Ghana has the same constitution as the United States, and that he was proud to join the American Army. He had become an American, to which I said, “Welcome aboard.” He had one of those Ghana accents and was black as coal. By the time he finished telling me about his homeland, I was sold on wanting to travel there someday.

“Are Americans welcome?” I asked.

“Sure!” He seemed to think the question was humorous for its simplicity about Ghana. He said that American soldiers in Ghana are treated like kings, and if anyone gives a hassle, a U.S. soldier has only to show his military ID, and the clouds all disappear. The soldier from Ghana told me that when he goes home on leave, the police actually salute him because he joined the American army. I was incredulous, and asked for reassurance, “Really?! They salute you?”

“Yes,” he said, with that funny Ghana accent. “They Salute American soldiers in Ghana! They love America and many Americans retire there.”

Sounded like Kurdish Iraq, where the kids ask soldiers for autographs, and even ask interpreters for autographs if they work for American soldiers.

Why al Qaeda has lost legitimacy, thanks to the war in Iraq:

I still find people in America, Nepal, Thailand, UAE and other countries who believe al Qaeda propaganda that they attack us because we support Israel or occupy Muslim holy land. This would not explain the decapitated Iraqi children I photographed when locals told me al Qaeda did it. This would not explain the Iraqi children al Qaeda has blown up, or the Afghans and Pakistanis killed by al Qaeda, or the Africans who are murdered by the same cult of serial killers. Did those decapitated children in the Iraqi village even know where America or Israel are? What about the Shia mosques they destroyed in Iraq? Were they occupying Saudi Arabia or supporting Israel?

Read the whole dispatch.

Michael Yon has recently been very optimistic about the current path to stability in Iraq, declaring the "war over" in Iraq as far back as July, and re-affirming it last month. Michael Totten has been more cautious and reserved, while noting that "pessimists have been losing the argument in Iraq ever since General David Petraeus radically transformed the American counterinsurgency strategy". Recently, he made a return to Baghdad, and has a more somber view, which includes the need to insure that Iraq remains on the right course, by keeping an American footprint in Iraq longer than 16 months:

BAGHDAD – For the past two weeks I’ve been embedded with the United States Army in Baghdad, and I find myself unable to figure out what to make of this place. Baghdad, despite the remarkable success of the surge, is as mind-bogglingly run-down and dysfunctional as ever, even compared with other Arabic countries. Iraq is a dark place. At times it feels like a doomed country that has only been temporarily spared the reckoning that is coming. Other times it is possible to look past the grimness and see progress beyond the mere slackening off of violence and war. Is Iraq truly on the mend, or has a total breakdown been merely postponed? Opinions here among Americans and Iraqis are mixed, but nearly everyone seems to agree about one thing at least: terrorists and insurgents will respond with a surge of their own in the wake of the upcoming withdrawal of American forces.

Sergeant Nick Franklin took me to meet an Iraqi woman named Malath who works with the local Sons of Iraq security organization in the Adhamiyah district of Baghdad. When I asked her if she thought her area was ready to stand on its own without American help, she bluntly answered “Of course not.” She doesn’t think Iraq needs another year or two or even three. She thinks it will need decades. “We won’t be ready until young people replace the older generation in the Iraqi Army and Iraqi Police. They need to replace the old Baath Party members who are still inside.”

Her view is the darkest. But Iraqis who think the job should only require a few more years are still pessimistic about what they think is likely to happen when the negotiated Status of Forces Agreement goes into effect and American troops withdraw from Iraqi cities in 2009. “We’ve seen hell,” an Iraqi intelligence source said when I met him in his house. “And that hell, if the American forces evacuate, will repeat. If Obama forces an evacuation from Iraq soon, everything will turn against him in this land.”

Read more...

Headline title for this post inspired by From Counterinsurgents to Peacekeepers

Victory Day in Iraq (?)

A number of conservative blogs participated in this, today. I knew about it through Zombie, when Curt forwarded his email that indicates he saw my cross-post at FA, earlier in the week.

As exuberant as I felt in that post's message, I am hesitant to declare Iraq a victory. There will probably never be an "official" victory declaration.

At some point, though, Iraq should succeed or fail based upon its own merits of self-rule and self-determination. No more apron-strings. And if it fails, if things head south of success, it should not be an indictment of the decision to remove Saddam. That remains, a positive. And I stand by the justifications put forth for war, to this day. In fact, even more so today than I did back then.

I think the photo below (another side of the reality), which BDSers would take delight in posting on their lefty sites, is actually the best indicator of just how well democracy is flourishing in the new Iraq:

Demonstrators hang an effigy of U.S. President George W. Bush during a rally at the al-Firdous square in Baghdad November 21, 2008.
REUTERS/Thaier al-Sudani

They still have a long way to go, though. Burning effigies of our "selected not elected" president is sooooo yesterday, and unimaginative. When they can come up with protests like this against the imperialistic, fascist dictatorial evil Bush regime:




....and get away with it....

Then, now, we're talking freedom and democracy, baby!

My pseudo-cross-post at Flopping Aces

Victory in Iraq Achieved

A U.S soldier shakes the hand of an Iraqi boy during a patrol in Baquba, in Diyala province some 65 km (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad, October 21, 2008.
REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic

Bush War critics often say success and victory has never been defined. It's been defined repeatedly; but not as often as the mantra, "What does victory in Iraq mean? It has never been defined?" *Sigh*

I'd say this is the moment when victory is in clear sight:

Though he'd been on a mission all day and was about to drop, Mike Yon just called from Iraq to let me know that the war is over, and we've won. Whatever it is that is left of violence, there isn't combat. Roughly half of the men in the unit of the 10th Mountain Division he was out on missions with are veterans with previous tours of Iraq and Afghanistan, and in eight months into their deployment in southern Baghdad, they haven't fired a single bullet in combat.

Our soldiers in Iraq have played many roles and worn many hats, but it seems that their primary role now is that of a peacekeeper, providing support to a government and a people that seem increasingly capable of handling their own affairs.

We can declare victory because President Bush wouldn't quit on his troops. If Barack Obama had his way, a triumphant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi would have had a chance to have made the same claim over the Caliphate of Iraq.

- Confederate Yankee

More from Michael Yon, via Instapundit:

And the place we're at, South Baghdad, used to be one of the worst places in Iraq. And now there's nothing going on. I've been walking my feet off and haven't seen anything. I've been asking Iraqis, 'do you think the violence will kick up again,' but even the Iraqi journalists are sounding optimistic now and they're usually dour." There's a little bit of violence here and there, but nothing that's a threat to the general situation. Plus, not only the Iraqi Army, but even the National Police are well thought of by the populace. Training from U.S. toops has paid off, he says, in building a rapport.

He says the big problem everybody is talking about now is corruption. But hey, we have that here, too. He'll be heading to Afghanistan next week. "Afghanistan is a bad situation, but on Iraq I can't believe things have turned out so well."

President Elect Obama and Pelosi-Reid wish to "end the war". Thanks to the efforts of President Bush and Senator McCain supporting General Petraeus and the soldiers on the ground, they have "WON the war."

*UPDATE* 11/18/08 0645

Hugh Hewitt, Monday:

Yesterday's vote by the Iraqi cabinet to approve a status of forces agreement confirms what most reasonable people had concluded this summer --that the battle for Iraq is over and the country is stable and secure even though its enemies remain in small enclaves within the country and across the border in Iran. It has taken five years and come at a high cost in American lives lost and in thousands of wounded soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines.

It is, however, a crucial victory in the war against Islamist extremism and for stability in the Middle East. Only blinkered victims of Bush Derangement Syndrome would want to throw away the fact of a multi-party, multi-ethnic democratic government in the heart of the Arab world, one capable of countering Iranian influence in the region and one that partners with the West in the ongoing battle against al Qaeda. The new agreement calls for the full withdrawal of American forces in three years --an orderly exit that allows order to endure within Iraq.

Zombietime suggests Saturday, November 22nd be declared Victory in Iraq Day.

Cross-posted at Flopping Aces

The False Derision that We Weren't Greeted as Liberators

“And so John likes — John, you like to pretend like the war started in 2007. You talk about the surge. The war started in 2003, and at the time when the war started, you said it was going to be quick and easy. You said we knew where the weapons of mass destruction were. You were wrong.

You said that we were going to be greeted as liberators. You were wrong.”-Barry, Presidential debate September 26, 2008, on the campus of the University of Mississippi.

Read my post at Flopping Aces

How Do You Measure Success in Iraq?

Amy Proctor points out another rod by which to measure:

How do you know things are going really well in Iraq? The State Department doesn’t have to threaten to draft employees to fill positions in Iraq anymore. All 300 jobs are now filled with willing volunteers.

Recall how in Kenneth Timmerman's The Shadow Warriors, the author describes how State Department officials, as well a some in the CIA and political appointees held over from the Clinton Administration, have worked to undermine the Bush Administration out of political partisanship over professionalism and patriotism.

FP: Shed some light for us on the shadow warriors at the State Department. How much have they hurt Bush administration policies?

Timmerman: Let me answer with an anecdote I describe in the book. After President Bush was elected to a second term in November 2004, Secretary of State Colin Powell called a town meeting at the State Department in Washington . Faced with a sea of Kerry-Edwards stickers in the parking lot, Powell decided to confront the problem head on. “We live in a democracy,” he said. “As Americans, we have to respect the results of elections.” He went on to tell his employees that President Bush had received the most votes of any president in U.S. history, and that they were constitutionally obligated to serve him.

One of Powell’s subordinates, an assistant secretary of state, became increasingly agitated. Once Powell had dismissed everyone, she returned to her office suite, shut the door, and held a mini town meeting of her own. After indignantly recounting Powell’s remarks, she commented: “Well, Senator Kerry receive the second highest number of votes of any presidential candidate in history. If just one state had gone differently, Sen. Kerry would be President Kerry today.” Her staff owed no allegiance to the president of the United States , especially not to policies they knew were wrong, she said. If it was legal, and it would slow down the Bush juggernaut, they should do it, she told them.

Here was an open call to insubordination, and, I might add, it was not an isolated incident.

Cross-posted at Flopping Aces

WMDs Found! (i.e., Weapons of Media Distortions)

The above cartoon by liberal 'toonist, Clay Bennett, can be viewed glass half-empty/glass half-full. The assumption on his part, of course, is that George Bush's presidency has been 8 years of failed policies and disaster for our country.

Iraq should be a political winner for Republicans. Not a losing talking point.

The popular, mainstream mantra hawked around media circles to the public, still seems to be that "Bush lied, people died". It's really past time to put that lie to rest. It affects this election cycle, as Democrats still want to tie John "McSame" to a "Bush 3rd term", with the perceived notion that President Bush was wrong, not just on the economy, but on the war decision to invade Iraq, no matter the current end result of victory, thanks to the stimulus package of a 20,000 troop surge. It doesn't matter to anti-Bush Democrats that al-Qaeda (along with the anti-war movement) has lost in Iraq and that the so-called "civil war" fomented by al-Qaeda in Iraq fizzled into the civil war that never was. No matter what the victory may have achieved the world in the long term, the price in blood and treasure wasn't worth it...because it all happened under Bush's watch.

The justification for war was more than about wmd finds; and began long before Bush's watch. Read Douglas Feith's War and Decision. Read Scott Malensek's series of posts covering the Iraqi Perspectives Project and Select Senate Committee on pre-war intell reports. Visit Mark Eichenlaub's Regime of Terror.

More currently, read Randall Hoven's American Thinker piece. Then spread the news around. Why? Because truth matters before the November Election.

So who lied and misled the public? It wasn't VP Dick Cheney. It wasn't President Bush. He only made a few mistakes and some bad decisions. But removing Saddam was the right thing to do; it was selfish self-interest- not moral high ground- which had France, Germany, and Russia stand opposed to the invasion.

Democrats think removing Saddam and his murderous sons from power was the wrong thing to do (since it all happened under Bush's leadership, and not Clinton's). And yet they (rightfully) gave the president their approval, authorizing the use of force, when public opinion polls were on the side of the President. Randall Hoven:

the "legal case" was solid and Iraq was given chance after chance after chance.

• The authorization noted at least 10 UN resolutions, spread out over a decade, to justify the use of US military force.
• The Authorization noted that "the President has authority under the Constitution to take action in order to deter and prevent acts of international terrorism against the United States, as Congress recognized in ... Public Law 107-40." [Emphasis added.]
• The Authorization noted Public Law 105-235 (passed under President Clinton) that urged the President "to take appropriate action, in accordance with the Constitution and relevant laws of the United States, to bring Iraq into compliance with its international obligations."

Senator Obama was against the Iraq invasion when he wasn't in a position to make the informed decision. Now, he still stands against it, because, politically, the war remains unpopular and based upon lies in the minds of many American voters. The actual justifications put forth by the Administration have been largely distorted and misrepresented by anti-war activists and a complicit media that leans left of center and anti-Bush.

Senator Obama and his Party think being against the invasion of Iraq is a political winner. What needs to happen, is to prove to the American public that the decision to forcefully remove Saddam was the right decision; and one based solidly on what we knew then (12 year history of defiance and violence; understanding that mistakes- i.e., flawed intelligence- are not the same as lies) and what we know today.

The initial 3 week invasion was a success. The succeeding 5 years were a challenge. Proving America not to be a paper tiger and surging on to victory the past year should be a feather in the cap. America has nothing to be ashamed of and everything to be proud of; and the political party that stood firm and responsible to the decision despite the fickle nature of public opinion polls, deserves accolades.

Bush was right. So, too, were Democrats before they were stricken with political amnesia.

Given that...and given the foreign policy challenges of Iran, Russia, China, North Korea, Pakistan, etc., I'll take more of the McSame. I mean...who do you suppose America's enemies dread more? An Obama presidency, or a McCain presidency?

Democratic delegates wave placards against presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, August 26, 2008. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

The "Johny-Come-Lately" MSM Awakening

From MSNBC July 24th:

McCain isn't backing down from his claim the surge started when he said it did, countering Dem attacks. "McCain said Army Col. Sean MacFarland started carrying out elements of a new counterinsurgency strategy as early as December 2006. At issue are McCain's comments in a Tuesday interview with CBS. The Arizona senator disputed Democrat Barack Obama's contention that a Sunni revolt against al-Qaida combined with the dispatch of thousands more U.S. combat troops to Iraq to produce the improved security situation there. McCain called that a ‘false depiction.’”

It is a false depiction. The decision to commit a troop surge didn't simply happen in a vacuum.

Thanks to milblogs, I was aware of the beginnings of the Anbar Salvation Front months in advance of MSM, although my first mention of it as such appears to be in May of 2007 (according to my category labeling). Steve Schippert's article in April of that year always stood out in my mind as well as for his description of Sheikh Sattar, who Eli Lake described as perhaps "the most important man in Iraq".

Schippert brings to attention the following video, put together by "the Godfather of Milblogging", Greyhawk of Mudville Gazette.
Schippert writes:

Greyhawk, whom I have long referred to as the Godfather of Milblogging, has done a fantastic job of crafting an easily digestible video series for the purpose of contextualizing the rise of Iraqi tribesmen and the Anbar Awakening and the decisive demise of al-Qaeda in Iraq and the forfeiture of their Anbar province epicenter.
He describes the context for the battle of Sufia as follows:

In November, 2006, what would come to be known as the “Awakening Movement” was still growing and still tentative, as two groups (US and local Iraqis) were just discovering whether they could actually work together. In the States, Democrats had just won the congressional elections in part on promises of a “new direction” in Iraq. Nothing whatesoever was certain about the future of that nation or the US presence there.

AQIZ (al Qaeda in Iraq) was not yet defeated in Ramadi (much less all of Anbar) and were determined to impose their will on the citizens there. A promise of “amnesty” for the sheiks who had turned against them had expired at the end of Ramadan, and they were about to make an example of one tribe on the ourtskirts of Ramadi.

As Major Niel Smith (writing in tandem with his commander, Col Sean MacFarland) explains briefly, at the time of the discovery of the attack an American unit (Lieutenant Colonel Charles Ferry’s 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry) was about to deploy on another mission. They turned on a dime and headed for Sufia (this is no easy task - one could spend longer explaining the difficulties to those unfamiliar with the process than it took the Army to overcome them) even as air assets were called in for support.And that’s what caught my eye back in November, 2006 when I said “this is big.” That was based just on the MNF-I press release, the media wouldn’t have recognized this for what it was, and they were quite busy ignoring the greater awakening movement anyway. Those who’ve spent any time in a TOC in Iraq (yeah, that’s a great number, I know…) will grasp this for what it was: Risk with a big cap “R” and HIGHLY “Succesful COIN” in all regards. The payoff was commensurate with that risk; the awakening survived and thrived, the surge helped it spread beyond the confines of Ramadi, and there are thousands of Americans and Iraqis alive today because of the decisions made then and there.

A brief history and timeline of the Sunni Awakening and the Surge:



It should be required viewing by all, and forwarded to all of your contacts. It's a far more comprehensive timeline history than what the media has provided us with.


Also read: The Battle of Sufia

Please take the time to thank Greyhawk, personally.


Hat tip: Steve Schippert

Cross-posted at Flopping Aces

Also, check out the updates to my post below.

Why al-Qaeda Lost the Hearts and Minds of Iraqis

A young Iraqi girl embraces Capt. Janet Rose assigned to the 431st Civil Affairs Battalion, at the Baqouba Women and Children's Hospital, June 9, 2007.

al-Qaeda only knows how to destroy. Not build hospitals, mosques, schools, improving the lives of ordinary Iraqi citizens.

From Bottomline Upfront (don't expect 32 consecutive frontpage NYTimes stories on pro-victory propaganda like these):

Someone show this to Code Pink and bleeding heart anti-war liberals who claim the mantle of championing humanitarian causes.

UPDATE:

check this out!. CJ writes:

This is commercial being shown on Iraqi television - you know, the kind of television that was banned under Saddam Hussein. For me, this makes what I and my fellow Soldiers did totally worth it.

Translation:
"We are Shias and Sunnis
Who gathers us is God and Mohammed
No Sunni No Shia
We have one goal
Stay together
God bless you all
Who separates us
is not from us"

Check out my cross-post at Flopping Aces for additional information that is worth knowing.

This, btw, is too good not to post here:



I first discovered Buck Sargent and this video 2 years ago, thanks to Hugh Hewitt.

Iraqi children are the future of their country. Let's hope they remember the kindness of U.S. soldiers. The images and the scenes of the children dancing in the video are priceless.

End in Sight

How do you bring troops home? By winning wars.

Thanks to brave Iraqis along with the best, dedicated military in the world and strong U.S. leaders such as George W. Bush, General Petraeus, and Senator McCain. How do you end a war? By winning it, folks.

Defeat for our side would only breed an endless war. Iraq is merely one battle- and a vital one at that- in a larger war.

Will the Battle Over Iraq End in a Way and at an Hour of President Bush's Choosing?

"This conflict was begun on the timing and terms of others; it will end in a way and at an hour of our choosing."
-President Bush, Sept 14, 2001 from President's Remarks at National Day of Prayer and Remembrance

By way of Michael Totten:

Security incidents, or attacks, are at their lowest level in four years. Civilian deaths are down by almost 90 percent since General Petraeus’ counterinsurgency “surge” strategy went into effect. High profile attacks, or explosions, are down by 80 percent in the same time period. American and Iraqi soldiers suffer far fewer casualties than they have for years. Ethno-sectarian deaths from Iraq’s civil war plunged all the way down to zero in May and June 2008.

As Indigo Red points out, Senator Obama's adopted President Bush's National Strategy for Victory in Iraq:

True success will take place when we leave Iraq to a government that is taking responsibility for its future – a government that prevents sectarian conflict, and ensures that the al Qaeda threat which has been beaten back by our troops does not reemerge. That is an achievable goal if we pursue a comprehensive plan to press the Iraqis stand up.

Nothing quite like jumping on the bandwagon of success, and pretending it's been your position all along, right?

Further news reads:

U.S. & Iraq Negotiating Conditions-Based Troop Withdrawal Timeframe

On Obama, Iraqis Like the Messenger but Not His Message

Obama Visiting Countries He's Insulted to Prove His Foreign Policy Credentials

Maliki Endorses Bush Plan, Not Obama Plan for Withdrawal

What Maliki said…