Iraq in Danger of Being 'Won'

For some time I was worried that the US would lose its nerve over Iraq. The democrats seamed to almost be begging for defeat even if only to make Bush look stupid. Bush was waiting for progress that never came, and seemed to have no strategy for victory.

But that was before the surge. The evil parasites at Al Qaida are in trouble. They are facing defeat in Iraq. This is from a report from a sympathiser:

The author tallies up and compares the numbers of operations claimed by each insurgent group under four categories: a year and half ago (November 2006), a year ago (May 2007), six months ago (November 2007) and now (May 2008). He demonstrated that while Al-Qaeda’s Islamic State of Iraq could claim 334 operations in Nov. 06 and 292 in May 07, their violent output dropped to 25 in Nov. 07 and 16 so far in May 08. Keep in mind that these assessments are based on Al-Qaeda's own numbers. The author also shows that similar steep drops were exhibited by other jihadist groups.

The graph is pretty telling:

The surge has certainly had a remarkable effect. But where are all the American deaths that we were expecting? Wasn't it supposed to put 10s of thousands of troops in harm's way? The Democrat senate majority leader said at the time:

Frankly, I don't believe that more troops is the answer for Iraq. It's a civil war and America should not be policing a Sunni-Shia conflict. In addition, we don't have the additional forces to put in there.

Admittedly he wasn't alone. But this graph tells the story:

The Iraqi army has taken control of Basra and now Sadr City. In Mosul, the last holdout, daily attacks are down 85% since an operation begun only this month.

The idea of attracting all the blood-thirsty lunatics to Iraq and killing them there seems to be working for the moment. Bush's presidency has had mixed reports so far. Will Bush be able to claim credit for a result in Iraq? What will the democrats say, who would have given Iraq over to the terrorists two years ago.

It is starting to look extremely promising. As more and more Iraqis get a taste for the peace dividend, things can only get better.

Hat Tip: Power Line