Two of the largest strongholds of al-Qaeda and Sunni insurgency have been declared a success in terms of the Surge’s military goals. First Anbar Province went from capitol of al-Qaeda’s modern caliphate to a shining example of how our fortunes in Iraq could change when the local population rises up, out of rejection of al-Qaeda’s bloody ways – to destroy al-Qaeda in their midst. Now Diyala, the second declared capitol of al-Qaeda’s modern caliphate, as been purged of al-Qaeda because of the same dynamic that was seen in Anbar: locals rising up to fight al-Qaeda due to their bloody political methods.

U.S. forces claimed success on Saturday in establishing their influence and denying al Qaeda fighters control of Iraq’s Diyala River valley, one of the main targets of an American offensive over the past several months.

“We influence the entire Diyala River valley,” Lieutenant-Colonel Andrew Poppas, commander of U.S. forces in the valley north of the town of Baquba, told journalists in a video conference.

“We have forces throughout the Diyala valley in key critical nodes. We cross any line of communications, deny the enemy any freedom of movement. Everything they do is watched,” he said.

The Diyala River, which joins the Tigris near Baghdad, is one of the three main fertile areas of northern and western Iraq, alongside the Euphrates and the Tigris itself.

al-Qaedaq has lost its second declared capitol of resistance in Iraq – and some people don’t think this is a big deal. Well it is. And it is because the Muslim people are beginning to see al-Qaeda as a failure, and because al-Qaeda has been doing more to massacre Muslims than create any modern caliphate. And because the Sunnis in Iraq are rejecting al-Qaeda, the fight is now for the heart and soul of the Muslim world:

Two Sunni leaders who took public stances against Al Qaeda in Iraq were attacked yesterday, a sign that the terror network may be stepping up retaliation against local chiefs who oppose it.

The flurry of attacks hinted at the complex challenges facing Iraq from Shi’ite militias and Sunni extremists, who often target not just Americans but also their own sects in vicious internal battles.
The United States has pointed to an anti-Al Qaeda alliance of local Sunni leaders as a sign of turnaround, but the attacks showed the high risks local leaders face by joining.

There is always a risk in opposing a fascist and brutal organization like al-Qaeda. The point is the resistance to this abhorrent intersection of NAZI tactics and Islamic Fundamentalism is growing, not weakening. It is spreading. And the more it spreads the more violent the desperate Islamo Fascists become and the more Muslims they kill. Creating more enemies in the Muslim world. The snowball is rolling down the hill and picking up speed. It is just not the ‘hill of defeat’ so many on the left predicted. It is the ‘hill of success’.

What can be seen in the news is, as attacks by al-Qaeda increase, the numbers of tips increase allowing us to round up more and more terrorists, and the numbers of Iraqis joining the government to police and protect the country from these fascists increase. There was a tipping point last fall when the GOP lost Congress and there were wild fantasies Bush could be forced to surrender. Those fantasies are now gone. No one seriously believes Bush will surrender Iraq up to his last day in office. He has the power to defy Congress in a time of war. But it will not be a power he needs to use. The fact is al-Qaeda has destroyed its reputation with Muslims by slaughtering them and treating them like cattle instead of human beings. And when Anbar rose up against them the needle that had been in balance between success and failure tipped too far to be stopped. Iraq will free itself of these terrorists and their brutal ways. And the Middle East will have made a critical choice on which path they will be taking into the future. It is coming to the point where it will be very hard to stop this movement. Once it picks up sufficient momentum nothing will stop it.