Perhaps ten years from now, while the Nobel for Al looks incredibly silly, Bush will be getting the “Profiles in Courage” award.

Ten years from now, Bush in prison is more likely than a Profiles in Courage award.

We are still waiting for the al Qaeda “surge” to materialize (just like we are still waiting for Jason Leopold to “sting” the sources of his “Rove has 48 hours to get his house in order” story).

We know the MSM really only likes to report “unhappy for Bush” news, and they definitely don’t like to bring attention to their own stories that don’t pan out, but the real indicator of al Qaeda in Iraq is their, more or less, absence of any ability to influence the media or political opinion through their non-materializing actions. Even, UBL now seems unable to scare a goat, except perhaps with that beard straight from a Ed Wood movie.

Even still, the Democrats don’t like to talk about Iraq anymore, and only months ago they were crediting their stand on Iraq for the November 2006 electoral success.

I guess Harry Reid was right. The war is “lost” .. for the friends of the insurgency.

Perhaps ten years from now, while the Nobel for Al looks incredibly silly, Bush will be getting the “Profiles in Courage” award.

Wow! Before I head into work, I wanted throw this up real quick. After reports of declining casulaties, we now get reports from military that our enemy is crippled! I know the liberals don’t want to hear it, but victory is starting to look lik…

I agree with AJ that some of the signs of capitulation are there.

First, it’s been easy to notice the decrease in attacks, but more importantly, there’s been a decrease in attacks with a suicide component, indicating the jihad may be running short of willing martyrs. This is a huge problem for al-Qaida, as the suicide attack is absolutely essential in order to instill enough fear to cause the American populace to pull the plug on the American military. The jihad has had to resort to remote detonations increasingly. This signifies to me that the audience in this macabre play, the Arab Street, is no longer applauding.

Secondly, the makeup of the bombers from a nationality standpoint has moved toward higher concentrations of foreigners, and less Iraqis. The tactical change that AQI made in Iraq, from attacking “occupiers” to attacking Iraqis is also instructive.

When they are being defeated, in the past the jihadis have had a tendency to change the venue, meaning attack another country in a big way, such that no one will notice their defeat on the current battlefield. This is what I fear they will do, and perhaps have already been attempting, what with recent arrests in Germany and elsewhere. But nonetheless such an attack will be an indication that the Iraq front, the front that they themselves have declared to be the pivotal battlefield, they feel is being lost.

Perhaps our strategy in Iraq is to dispense with al-Qaida, THEN deal with Iran?

I think there will be people there causing trouble for a long time, however, I also hope that in relative terms the situation continues to improve. One thing about it, since the war critics have depended largely on big attacks to keep Iraq in the news..once those attacks lessen the situation seems peaceful by contrast.

But I will point out there is a major disconnect between all the sources I read.

I read some places that say bombers and others are being routed through Syria and I hear our combined forces along with the local troops are taking down 4 to 14 bad guys a day.

As long as we are taking down bad guys then we know they are still there. But we have to counter that with the other reported numbers of new kids crossing the border to play the game.

When you look at that there is at a minimum a difference in totals.

After all they are only part of the problem.

Sure we can hunt them out and take them down, but at what cost?

The thinner they get they harder they are to find.

But with all that we have the military upper hand for sure , now is the time for the other things to step in and do their magic.

We have done pretty much the guns things, now it is time for us to step up with the rest of the picture.

Now the Dems will have to figure how to spin this and up the bet to counter it or choose to ignore it at their whim.

It will be interesting to see what happens from here.