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Local Headline: Troop Surge Shows Signs of Helping
The NY Times op-ed last week has had its ripple effect. The above the fold headline in our local paper today says, “Troop surge shows signs of working.” Sometimes it helps that the mainstream media is an echo chamber–at least when it echoes the truth.
The story is by AP writer Robert Burns:
The new U.S. military strategy in Iraq, unveiled six months ago to little acclaim, is working.
In two weeks of observing the U.S. military on the ground and interviewing commanders, strategists and intelligence officers, it’s apparent that the war has entered a new phase in its fifth year.
. . . Despite political setbacks, American commanders are clinging to a hope that stability might be built from the bottom up with local groups joining or aiding U.S. efforts to root out extremists rather than from the top down, where national leaders have failed to act.
Commanders are encouraged by signs that more Iraqis are growing fed up with violence. They are also counting on improvements in the Iraqi army and police, which are burdened by religious rivalries and are not ready to take over national defense duties from U.S. troops this year.
U.S. military leaders want Congress and President Bush to give them more time to keep trying to reach a point, perhaps in 2009, when the Iraqis will be closer to reconciliation and ready to provide much of their own security.
Amazingly, Burns makes no mention of Al Qaeda. Instead he uses the generic term “violence” when discussing the fact that ordinary Iraqis are making changes because they are “fed up with the violence.” No, Robert, they are fed up with Al Qaeda.
Violence has killed no one in Iraq. “Violence doesn’t kill people. People kill people.” In the case of Iraq, it is “people”, and I use that term loosely, who are associated with Al Qaeda who engage in the most spectacular attacks on the innocents.
Nonetheless, this is an encouraging development. For months papers from the NY Times to the Mainstreet Journal have been trumpeting IED attacks and poll results showing a war weary public. Now the truth is getting out and more people will . . .
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