On the road with the family enjoying a day of rollercoasters at Busch Gardens Williamsburg for LJStrata’s annual birthday bash – with a dash of fast. Take if from all of us, ride the Griffon. Totally wicked. The youngest finally got to do Lochness Monster and are on their way to becoming coaster addicts like their mother (and grandmother). Saturday I hit a milestone on the bike riding from Herndon down to the Potomac to sit for a bit across the river from the Lincoln Memorial, with the Washington Monument directly behind. 46 miles that day.

Anyway, that and some unfinished work leaves me only time for a Fly By for the moment. So let’s start cruising through the news.

Iraq’s President Talabani thinks most of our troops will be able to depart Iraq within a year.

Meanwhile, Iraq’s president said at least 100,000 U.S. servicemembers could return home from Iraq by the end of 2008.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, in an interview aired Sunday on CNN, proposed that several U.S. military bases stay in Iraq.

Talabani said he envisioned faster U.S. troop reductions than U.S. commanders have discussed in public, but he emphasized that the pace of withdrawal was up to those commanders.

“I think it is possible at the end of the next year that a big part of the American Army will be back here,” said Talabani, who gave the interview during a trip to the United States. “More than 100,000 (troops) can be back by the end of the next year.”

Of course this differs from the Surrendercrats plan to fold and run in that we would be leaving as victors and there would be a stable, democratic Iraq in place as our ally in the Middle East. The optimism is grounded in the fact things are changing rapidly and radically on the ground. So much security should be the norm soon and political progress will follow. Al Qaeda is the enemy of Iraqi Muslims across all three sects now. The war could be proceeding to a rapid end.

Clarice Feldman notes notes a website that is covering the Marine investigative report on Haditha that should have been obvious to many (at least I thought it was obvious). She notes that the Haditha attack was a PR stunt by al-Qaeda to hook gullible and naive liberal Democrats into calling for surrender in Iraq.

Buried in the mountain of exhibits attached to the once secret Haditha, Iraq murder inquiry prepared by US Army Maj. Gen. Eldon A. Bargewell is an obscure Marine Corps intelligence summary (see pdf) that says the deadly encounter was an intentional propaganda ploy planned and paid for by Al Qaeda foreign fighters.

The fact there is evidence to this effect should be interesting grist when Mad Rep Murtha has to testify on libel charges after he stated, as fact, the guilt of the Marines involved before they even went to trial. Murtha is going to be an indicator if the left is guilty of spineless ignorance, or something much, much worse. If he tries to fight off the charges he was duped by a PR stunt, then many could conclude the left may not have been duped after all.

Iraqi forces are definitely becoming stronger and more competent because they are foiling more and more al-Qaeda efforts to regain some ground. In some reporting that SHOULD be headline news in the US Iraqi forces stopped an al-Qaeda offensive to retake Tikrit.

Iraqi forces have foiled an al-Qaeda plot to seize control of the city of Tikrit, security officials said Monday, while a Polish soldier was reportedly killed in a separate incident in Diwaniyah.

The al-Qaeda in Iraq terrorist network was planning to attack numerous targets in central Tikrit, 175 kilometres north of Baghdad and the capital of Salahaddin province, in order to control the city and link it to the so-called Islamic State of Iraq, an al-Qaeda affiliate, according to the officials.

The plan involved assaulting the relatively stable city from the south, the west and the east, avoiding the northern part where US troops are based in a former air force facility, the source added.

Director of the Salahaddin National Security Centre Colonel Jasssem Hussein Mohammed said that Iraqi security forces had managed to raid the militants’ dens, arresting dozens of gunmen, killing scores of others and confiscating large amounts of explosives and weapons.

Among those killed were Saudi national Abu Obada, who headed al- Qaeda in the north Tigris area, and Ali Youssif al-Jabouri, the mufti of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq, said Major Ahmed Sobhi of the Salahaddin police command anti-terrorism unit.

This is a major setback for al-Qaeda. It would be akin to French or Italian forces finding and routing out a Nazi force attempting to retake some ground before we had entered Germany in WW II. The fact is Iraqi Muslims just took out what has to be one of al-Qaeda’s last fighting forces. This is a clear sign of a major shift in our fortunes in Iraq – as well as the fortunes of Iraqis themselves. The more of these large attacks that are foiled the more impotent al-Qaeda becomes. This should be big news, but so far it is not making many headlines.

And to underscore the lunacy of the liberal left we have this gem of a thought about what is going on in Iran:

If this is true, then why has the United States not already declared war on Iran? In what alternative universe would Washington allow another nation to direct attacks that kill U.S. troops without responding? To revert to the Hitler-era analogy that the Bush Regime is so fond of evoking in regard to Iran, what would the United States have done in 1938 if Nazi Germany had been arming, training, funding and directing deadly assaults on American troops from, say, Mexico?

…

And hey: “Qods” sounds a lot like “al Qaeda,” doesn’t it? That gives you extra traction in the echo chamber — more bang for the propaganda buck.

This ace detective (pun intended) must of not realized we do not name our enemies, they name themselves. I guess the idea of giving Iran the option to pull back and behave before we are forced to take a lot of needless lives never crossed this poor chap’s mind. He likens those who understand that there is more to this situation than similar sounding names “knuckledraggers”, seems he has a lot of mirrors in his house. The left is imploding in a burst of egomaniacal denial. They have so much vested in losing Iraq the entire world is now one big conspiracy theory out to save the evil Bush. They are seriously losing it! al-Qaeda sounds like Qods? You can’t make this stuff up.

No word on whether this Inspector Clouseau of the leftward fevered swamps thinks the student protests going onin Iran right now are actually a plot by the College Republicans to throw a bad light on President Ahmedinejad and help Bush. I am sure there is a rhyme to this reason as well! Maybe Iranians just feel the Mad Mullahs are dangerous???

To further underscore the lunacy of the leftist media, we have a report out today that is a lie of contradictions. The headline (and the soundbite-bottomfeeders who don’t read beyond the headline) claim Iraq is against reconciliation. But when you read the statements by Iraqis it is clear what we have is a false headline – not one that is even close to simply being ‘inaccurate’:

Top Iraqis Pull Back From Key U.S. Goal
Reconciliation Seen Unattainable Amid Struggle for Power

For much of this year, the U.S. military strategy in Iraq has sought to reduce violence so that politicians could bring about national reconciliation, but several top Iraqi leaders say they have lost faith in that broad goal.

…

Humam Hamoudi, a prominent Shiite cleric and parliament member, said any future reconciliation would emerge naturally from an efficient, fair government, not through short-term political engineering among Sunnis and Shiites.

“Reconciliation should be a result and not a goal by itself,” he said. “You should create the atmosphere for correct relationships, and not wave slogans that ‘I want to reconcile with you.’ ”

…

Some politicians remain hopeful. Hashimi, the Sunni vice president, recently drafted what he calls the “Iraqi National Compact,” a 25-point statement of principles that condemns all types of extremism and sectarian discrimination.

This is nitpicking taken to the absurd. The Iraqis are really saying we can and will resolves this. They are ALL confident they can work through the power struggles (part of the problem) and the insecurities and mistrust (most of the problem). The WaPo is so desperate to hold onto their dream of a failure in the US they have twisted the words and intents of these people to present a charade, a fantasty. Somehow it is amazing the SurrenderMedia still thinks their stories can create reality in Iraq. The fact is Iraq will go its way no matter how well or how badly the news media reports on them. We will see major political progress in Iraq, and all the reporting will be about what a surprise breakthrough it was! LOL! The media is always ‘surprised’ when they have been caught misreporting. No one else is, but they sure are. Always the last to get a clue it seems.