“in Iraq’s 18 provinces, terrorist networks are either weaker or have been destroyed entirely”
That is a quote from anti-war, German magazine Spiegel. This is a very long report but well worth reading if you have the time. Excerpts,
Since June, Ramadi residents have only known the war from televison. Indeed, US military officials at the Baghdad headquarters of Operation Iraqi Freedom often have trouble believing their eyes when they read the reports coming in from their units in Ramadi these days. Exploded car bombs: zero. Detonated roadside bombs: zero. Rocket fire: zero. Grenade fire: zero. Shots from rifles and pistols: zero. Weapons caches discovered: dozens. Terrorists arrested: many.
…
Earlier this year, thousands of attacks occurred every week, and hundreds died daily. It seemed that terror reigned supreme, that its resources were inexhaustible. But now the trend appears to be reversing itself. Terror is weakening, and its leaders, most recently al-Qaida’s second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, are issuing dramatic appeals to radical communities not to give up the fight. This is a good sign. “They are no longer on schedule,” Petraeus says. “They have a problem.”One is that Iraq has come a long way in developing its own security forces. There are now 194,000 police officers in uniform, and the Iraqi army has 154,000 newly recruited soldiers. These organizations are still not as fully functional as they should be, and there have been many reports of corruption and religious activities, but there’s been a noticeable shift nonetheless. In the past few weeks, the Americans were not the only ones capturing and killing terrorists. The Iraqis have also been successful. The local police forces, for example, regularly obtain information directly from the population that leads them to the terrorists’ weapons caches, training camps and bomb factories
Remember folks, Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid proclaimed this operation a failure prior to it beginning. I’m left wondering why we’re left reading German publications for reporting like this.
Finally, chew on this liberals:
“The US military is more successful in Iraq than the world wants to believe“
Subscribe to blog feed.