Nov 17 2007

Analysts See Bush Leaving Office With Success In Iraq

Published by at 9:57 am under All General Discussions,Iraq

A few months back two analysts blew open the conventional wisdom on Iraq when, upon their return from that country, they wrote a NY Times article claiming victory in Iraq was possible. One hilariously obvious line from the one of the follow up articles was this quote by Michael O’Hanlon of the Brookings Institute:

In today’s New York Times, Brookings analysts Michael O’Hanlon and Ken Pollack argue that “the administration’s critics seem unaware of the significant changes taking place” as a result of the President’s surge strategy in Iraq.

The critics remain blissfully unaware to this day. And so it is likely the Dems will continue to deny reality and live in their fantasy world of perpetual doom and a failed America, even though O’Hanlon is now grudgingly admitting Bush will NOT pay a price for Iraq, but will instead leave office with a victory:

With an intensifying White House race drawing attention to his legacy, President George W. Bush could leave office without the baggage of complete failure in Iraq thanks to new U.S. military gains, some analysts say.

American success at quelling sectarian and insurgent violence has raised hopes that the relatively calmer conditions of the past few months in Iraq might last into early 2009, when the next U.S. president takes over.

“The overall prediction has to be that George Bush will escape this without an obviously visible abject failure. It may become that again over time. But right now, it looks like Bush will escape by the skin of his teeth,” said Michael O’Hanlon of the Brookings Institution.

Note the BDS driven frustration! Bush will ‘escape’ – nothing about him turning the tides and giving America a well needed victory. Bush will not be a ‘complete failure’. No, those designations will be levied on the doom & gloom Surrendercrats and SurrenderMedia. The flow of stories from Iraq will be dominated by (a) how much Iraq has turned around and (b) how brutal and horrific al-Qaeda’s atrocities where. There will be no way for the world to see defeat in Iraq.

How could there be defeat when al-Qaeda, the entity behind 9-11, is being hunted and chased out of Iraq?

An armed Sunni group has ended Al-Qaeda’s tight two-year grip on north Baghdad’s volatile Adhamiyah neighbourhood and is now in control, an AFP correspondent witnessed on Friday.

A local militia calling itself the “revolutionaries of Adhamiyah” took over the Sunni district on the east bank of the Tigris on November 10 in a swift and audacious raid that sent Al-Qaeda fleeing from its last stronghold in Baghdad.

On Friday, members of the “revolutionaries of Adhamiyah” controlled main roads into the neighbourhood as well the square housing the famous Abu Hanifa mosque where Saddam Hussein made his last public appearance before fleeing Baghdad in 2003 as US-led forces invaded the country.

A Sunni bastion encircled by Shiite districts, Adhamiyah had been one of the most dangerous areas of Baghdad, under the tight control of Al-Qaeda “emirs”.

The AFP correspondent said the neighbourhood was calm with the streets taken over by men wearing dark grey shirts and toting light weapons, Kalashnikovs and machine guns.

And more reporting here

Since the last soldiers of the “surge” deployed last May, Baghdad has undergone a remarkable transformation.

It’s not only that Baghdad is starting to feel normal. Statistics compiled by the U.S. military and the Iraqi government show that the violence has fallen significantly countrywide. Most of the figures are not broken out for Baghdad, but the capital has in the past accounted for a high percentage of the violence.

The number of explosions of all kinds has fallen sharply, from 1,641 nationwide in March to 763 in October. That is still a high number but a level not seen since September 2005, according to the U.S. military. Mortar attacks also are down, from an all-time high of 224 in Baghdad in June to 53 in October. A senior U.S. general said Thursday that the number of bombings in the country had dropped by almost half since March.

Far more significant than the increased troop presence, officials say, is the revolt that has taken place within Sunni neighborhoods against Al Qaeda in Iraq. Echoing the successful tribal rebellion against Al Qaeda in Anbar province, local Sunni insurgents have turned against their former allies, driving Al Qaeda operatives out of their strongholds and ending the reign of terror that the extremists had perpetrated.

A ‘normal’ life is returning to Iraq since al-Qaeda’s ‘reign of terror’ has been ended. Stop and think about this. We are still there, it is al-Qaeda who has been vanquished. Logic dictates it cannot be our presence that causes the death and carnage (and some honest reporting would have noted the fact too that al-Qaeda was the source of most Iraqi deaths). Life is returning to normal with our presence still there, and al-Qaeda’s reign of terror on Iraqis has been ended. And this is defeat?

To the Surrendercrats this means nothing because they don’t care about Iraq. Now it is all about self preservation because they went out on a dumb limb and declared defeat right before we turned the corner. In fact, if the had been paying attention to events on the ground and not obsessing about getting Bush politically they would have seen the danger signs back in March. But their Bush hatred has turned to actual madness. I am not being cute anymore, the far left has completely lost their minds. As the first article notes, the issue in 2008 will be who can retain the success in Iraq. I doubt America will trust people deep in denial to hold onto the success in Iraq, especially when they don’t even grasp it has happened!.

10 responses so far

10 Responses to “Analysts See Bush Leaving Office With Success In Iraq”

  1. MerlinOS2 says:

    A viewpoint from a blogger who is a native Iraqi and left of center but worth the read.

    The Torn Ultimatum
    As Baghdad moves slowly towards normality, Iraqis carefully breathe a sigh of relief. The positive developments have pretty much become undeniable, but civilians are still cautious. And what do the media do?

    The journalists are torn. They scramble to change their story from “everything sucks” to “okay, so it’s better, but not that much better.”

    One such story was in the WaPo by Thomas Ricks. Yes, the author of a book about Iraq called “Fiasco.” His story said:

    “In more than a dozen interviews, U.S. military officials expressed growing concern over the Iraqi government’s failure to capitalize on sharp declines in attacks against U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians. A window of opportunity has opened for the government to reach out to its former foes, said Army Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the commander of day-to-day U.S. military operations in Iraq, but ‘it’s unclear how long that window is going to be open.'”

    What Iraqi in his right mind would defend Nouri Al Maliki’s government? We all know he’s ineffective. But Ricks doesn’t care who heads Iraq. He tells us the real reason he’s writing the story:

    “The lack of political progress calls into question the core rationale behind the troop buildup President Bush announced in January, which was premised on the notion that improved security would create space for Iraqis to arrive at new power-sharing arrangements.”

    Of course, everything was supposed to happen in no time at all. If possible, it should happen before the paper goes to press.

     

  2. kathie says:

    This seems like good news reported by the Washington Post.

    “Petraeus Helping Pick New Generals”

  3. cali_sun says:

    AJ,
    great analysis; I do believe that the BDS infected dems, and hacks are well aware of the coming vicotry, although refuse to acknowledge because they hate Pres. Bush more than allowing him or America for that matter a victory.
    It would render them not only useles, but also corrupt, and incompetent, their hopes for 2008 dashed, being reduced to minority status for a long time to come.
    Nothing about them is real, everything has to be done dishonest, and lies are common. Their agenda could never get them elected in any shape, form or fashion, because their ideology is dead, not to mention harmful
    This is a bunch, and in case of Hillary’s win, who would turn over our military to the useless, and corrpot UN, and participate to from a one world government.
    As the debate yesterday demonstrated, their dishonesty is so deep, that not a simple debate has to be turned into a sham, with stacked audience, network, and moderators.
    Washinton has become a pariah, a large portion of the congress so out of touch, the american people, and those with somewhat appreaciating values are no longer heard – what evil is good, and what good is evil these days. Troubling – indeed!

  4. Terrye says:

    That whole argument that the surge has failed because Iraqi politicians have not done more on reconciliation is so lame. For one thing, the primary purpose of the surge was push back AlQaida and stop the killing.

    Stop the killing.

    and then if possible get the politicians to reconcile. Well, at least the Iraqis have an excuse for not getting things done, what excuse do our pols have? No one is shooting at them.

  5. crosspatch says:

    Hey folks. Check out this video on YouTube. It is a tribute to the National Guard from a band called 3 Doors Down. Just AWESOME!

  6. crosspatch says:

    Another key article today is this one from Bill Roggio describing how the Iraqi Sunni clerics have turned against the extreme Sunni clerics that had been supporting al Qaida and had called for the election boycott in 2005.

    This is more than just some isolated events, this is a sea change through the entire culture. This is “the tipping point”. I would say Iraq now has an excellent chance of a more peaceful future and the main security threat is now extreme Shiites backed by Iran.

  7. crosspatch says:

    Lets see what al Qaida has been up to today:

    Algerian security forces killed Yahia Abu al Haytham, a leader in al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, at a checkpoint in Tizi Ouzou province. Haytham, also known as Abdelhamid Saadaoui, was the leader of the al Ansar brigade in the Kabilian region as well as an al Qaeda financier.

    Buh bye! Oh, and then there’s this:

    Al Qaeda operative and Shabab leader Aden Hashi Ayro “called for attacks on African Union troops and expressed his wishes of someday beheading women and children in Addis Ababa” in a recording on the internet.

    Oh, isn’t that a lovely prospect … to have wishes to chop off the heads of innocent women and children. Islam is supposed to be proud of talk like this?

    Those people are animals and need to be shot down like dogs and the same goes for anyone who would aspire to be in their company.

  8. Terrye says:

    They are psycho.

  9. Mark78 says:

    AJ,
    Your site has become a clearinghouse to find out what progress is being made in Iraq. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this because I know how much time it takes to skim many news stories each day and put them all together to figure out the bigger picture.

    Thanks for what you do.

    Mark

  10. AJStrata says:

    Mark78,

    Hey thanks man! Appreciate the comment.

    AJStrata