The battle for Diyala Province, which should settle whether Iraq will stabilize or not, will not be short. And we need to recognize those who are sacrificing now, in the face of SurrenderCrat’s trying to fulfill the enemy’s wildest hopes. We need to recognize that these soldiers and marines on the ground are the ones who are laying their lives down for the rest of us to have some hope for peace throughout the rest of our lives and our children’s lives.

Is Diyala that important? Apparently yes. As the vilolence in Baghdad becomes more contained it can be rooted out through simple isolation of zones and sweeps. But the Provinces are geographically much tougher. Just recall Saddam and his little hole in the ground to get a picture. We need to turn the locals to our side, as was done in Anbar Province:

In Iraq’s volatile Anbar province, where more than 1,200 U.S. service members have been killed, success comes in waves. But with insurgent attacks against Iraqi police, government buildings and U.S. troops at record lows, some believe that the one-time Sunni insurgent stronghold has turned a corner.

“The area is very much secure,” said David, an Iraqi interpreter who has worked with U.S. forces in the provincial capitol of Ramadi for the past three years, including with a unit of Utahns in 2005 and 2006 – and who for safety reasons asked that his full name not be revealed.

As most things go in Iraq, Ramadi’s relative success – attacks are down from 25 per day last year to about four per day in the past few months – is a double-edged sword. Anbar no longer owns Iraq’s title for “most deadly province.” That now belongs to Baghdad. But there is growing evidence that the Sunni insurgency has shifted its attention away from the Utah-size western province in favor of a Maryland-sized province east of the Iraqi capital.

…

“In 2006, Diyala Province was the eighth most violent of Iraq’s 18 provinces,” said Jason Campbell, who helps administer the index. “Now it’s number three after Baghdad and Anbar, and at the rate it’s going, it may surpass Anbar soon.”

Shortly before he was killed in a U.S. air assault, al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi reportedly declared Diyala the new center of his intended Islamic caliphate.

Campbell said it is likely that al-Qaida fighters and other Sunni insurgents have moved directly from Anbar to Diyala.

Anbar is the example of success. It is not violence-free (neither is LA). But attacks are way down (over 80%) and with more and more security in local police hands it will stabilize even more. For those looking for the example of success, where we can begin to think about troop withdrawals, Anbar is a good place to look. But Diyala has become the focal point, maybe even the tipping point. It is the premier front in the War on Terror right now (fronts move, get used to it). Diyalal, too, will come at a price:

The attack Sunday that claimed six Fort Lewis soldiers and a news photographer came as their platoon moved through the streets of Baqouba , Iraq, searching for men who’d been seen planting a bomb in the road.
A massive explosion flipped the 20-ton Stryker upside down, then gunmen opened fire from a nearby mosque, according to another journalist who was embedded with the platoon.

Associated Press writer Todd Pitman reported that all on board the Stryker but the driver were killed in the blast. While some soldiers worked at the blast site, others returned fire on the fighters in the mosque, killing three.

Pitman was in a vehicle following behind what proved to be the worst attack on a Stryker since the eight-wheeled vehicle’s introduction into Iraq in late 2003. It was also the worst loss of life for Fort Lewis troops in nearly 21/2 years.

Please read the article and the story of the young men who died for us. Words always escape me, but my pride and debt to those who wear the uniform knows no bounds these days. Everytime I run across a father with someone in Iraq I ask them to send their kid my thanks and I let them know I am grateful for what they have done as a family. But with each of these sacrifices there are tens or hundreds of success stories the SurrenderMedia ignores. A sample:

raqi Special Operations Forces conducted two operations Sunday and Monday aimed at disrupting terrorist networks and attacks on innocent civilians and Coalition Forces.

The ISOF detained the suspected leader of a rogue element of the Jaysh al-Madhi (JAM) militia in Baghdad Sunday. The suspect is linked to assassinations and death squad activities in Baghdad as well as attacks on Iraqi and

…

In another operation Monday, ISOF captured an alleged leader of a criminal element of the JAM militia in Diyala Province. The operation was aimed at disrupting Iranian intelligence operations and other activities in the Diyala province.

The Iranians are definitely at war with us, and they need to pay. We cannot allow this kind of pretend innocence to stand. But that is an issue for another post. The fact is the SurrenderCrats are trying to dole out supplies based on progress when they have no concept or awareness of the progress to date. As things turn our way in Anbar – the prime insurgent hold out last year, Sen Surrender claimed the “war is lost”. The SurrenderCrats are lost, not the war. And the military is being open and honest about this effort, and it will not be done by July 4th:

The Pentagon announced Tuesday that 35,000 soldiers in 10 Army combat brigades will begin deploying to Iraq in August as replacements, making it possible to sustain the increase of U.S. troops there until at least the end of this year.
U.S. commanders in Iraq are increasingly convinced that heightened troop levels, announced by President Bush in January, will need to last into the spring of 2008. The military has said it would assess in September how well its counterinsurgency strategy, intended to pacify Baghdad and other parts of Iraq, is working.

“The surge needs to go through the beginning of next year for sure,” said Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the day-to-day commander for U.S. military operations in Iraq. The new requirement of up to 15-month tours for active-duty soldiers will allow the troop increase to last until spring, said Odierno, who favors keeping experienced forces in place for now.

Since the military is the force on the ground and the ones doing all the sacrificing for this country, you think the limousine lounging liberals would take their views into account. But the Dems are out for poll numbers and seats, while the military is out to win. Sadly right now, those two things will never happen together. Dems are now completely vested in Sen Surrender being right. If he is wrong the Dems will be history. If we push al Qaeda out of Iraq, the Democrat’s idiotic decisions to pander to the virulent left for votes will be repayed by being shunned by the rest of America. We CAN win this battle in Iraq. We succeeded in Anbar. We are clearing Baghdad. We have the insurgents tied down in Diyala. Now is not the time to trade the lives of our soldiers for votes in 2008.

Diyala province, a demographically mixed area between Baghdad and Iran, has already experienced an upsurge in violence following what Odierno said was in influx in recent months of Shiite militiamen from Baghdad and al-Qaeda in Iraq fighters from Anbar province, a Sunni stronghold in the west of the country. The U.S. military had to dispatch an additional battalion to Diyala, and Odierno said he is considering sending another.

In Anbar, meanwhile, violence has dropped dramatically in recent months because of the cooperation of local tribes – a trend that could allow for a smaller U.S. presence there in the future, said Odierno. “We have less attacks in Anbar than in any other region,” he said.

As I have been saying for a week now, there are indications the Shiia and Sunni Islamo Fascists are joining forces and the ‘civil war’ in Iraq is the long awaited alliance of moderate Arabs/Muslims with the Iraqi and US forces. It happened in Anbar. This is the civil war we have all been waiting for. This is when the moderates in the ME rise up and throw off al Qaeda. Just note how Muqtata Sadr (the Iranian Puppet) is now all of a sudden allied with Sunni groups opposed to the Iraqi government:

The Iraqi and Arab media is reporting extensively on the latest political projects of the Sadrist Current. According to Al-Hayat, Muqtada and the rest of the Sadrist leadership have decided to institute far-reaching reform within their party’s organization, and to redefine their position in the Iraqi political scene.

…

Al-Mada reported on the same topic, adding that Sadrists have been holding meetings with Sunni parties (the Accord bloc) and Shi’a parties that have withdrawn from the government (namely, al-Fadhila). Even though al-Mada tried to present the new Sadrist initiative as not being directed against the current Iraqi government — al-Mada said that the aim of the new front is to “rectify” the demarche of the government – the newspaper reported that a Sadrist withdrawal from the UIA is becoming a real possibility.

Sadr’s propaganda aside, he is allying with Sunni insurgents. So this is not sectarian. And I think we will find in Diyala the Islamo Fascists from Shiia and Sunni sects dying side by side against Iraqi government and US forces clearing the area. And for those who do not think Sunni’s and Shiia can ally all they need to do is look to Syria and Iran.