My gawd, this was actually printed in the Washington Post:
The Iraqi Upturn
Don’t look now, but the U.S.-backed government and army may be winning the war.Sunday, June 1, 2008; Page B06
THERE’S BEEN a relative lull in news coverage and debate about Iraq in recent weeks — which is odd, because May could turn out to have been one of the most important months of the war. While Washington’s attention has been fixed elsewhere, military analysts have watched with astonishment as the Iraqi government and army have gained control for the first time of the port city of Basra and the sprawling Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City, routing the Shiite militias that have ruled them for years and sending key militants scurrying to Iran. At the same time, Iraqi and U.S. forces have pushed forward with a long-promised offensive in Mosul, the last urban refuge of al-Qaeda. So many of its leaders have now been captured or killed that U.S. Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker, renowned for his cautious assessments, said that the terrorists have “never been closer to defeat than they are now.”Iraq passed a turning point last fall when the U.S. counterinsurgency campaign launched in early 2007 produced a dramatic drop in violence and quelled the incipient sectarian war between Sunnis and Shiites. Now, another tipping point may be near, one that sees the Iraqi government and army restoring order in almost all of the country, dispersing both rival militias and the Iranian-trained “special groups” that have used them as cover to wage war against Americans. It is — of course — too early to celebrate; though now in disarray, the Mahdi Army of Moqtada al-Sadr could still regroup, and Iran will almost certainly seek to stir up new violence before the U.S. and Iraqi elections this fall. Still, the rapidly improving conditions should allow U.S. commanders to make some welcome adjustments — and it ought to mandate an already-overdue rethinking by the “this-war-is-lost” caucus in Washington, including Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).
……the Iraqi government of Nouri al-Maliki now has “unparalleled” public support, as Gen. (David)Petraeus put it, and U.S. casualties are dropping sharply.
……When Obama floated his strategy for Iraq last year, the United States appeared doomed to defeat. Now he needs a plan for success.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/31/AR2008053101927.html
Hate to burst the WaPo’s bubble but, we were focused on and engaged in success, in spite of the media and democratic politicians clamoring for defeat. The WaPo has been just as guilty in the ‘lull in news coverage’ department except when there was another American death to exploit for their anti-war agenda. Now that victory can no longer be ignored, they’re being forced to admit it, albeit with the usual ‘too early to celebrate’ caveat. But celebrate we do.