The good news keeps coming out of Iraq. First up – the US has been able to hand over responsibility for most security operations to the ever expanding and capable Iraqi forces:

Officials said the Iraq Army have been taking the lead in a majority of counter-insurgency and other operations in most provinces around the country. They said the army was limiting its dependency on the United States to logistics, equipment and training.

“I think they’ve got the right leadership,” U.S. Brig. Gen. James Yarbrough, commander of the Iraqi Assistance Group, said. “They’ve got the courage to confront their flaws, and I think they show great promise.”

Officials said the army’s growth has led to successes against Al Qaida cells in central and northern Iraq. They said Al Qaida commanders in Baghdad, Mosul, Tarmiyah and other areas have been killed or detained in recent counter-insurgency operations.

Of course as Iraqis take control of their destiny it means we can start lowering our numbers in Iraq because we are succeeding in Iraq – not because of some weird far left desire to surrender to al-Qaeda so Bush will look bad. No one is ever understand the left’s suicidal tendencies over Iraq, all we need to remember is to never leave them in charge of national security ever!

Why is success continuing to snowball? Because Iraqis ARE standing up and taking matters into their own hands. Something the far left claimed they would only do if we turned tail and ran out on them. Clearly it has been shown that all Iraq needed to stand up was a helping security hand by a greater US presence and a plan to clear and hold regions. Here is just one of many examples coming out of Iraq each day on how Iraqis are turning in the Islamo Fascists they once harbored:

As reported by Multi National Forces-Iraq, a weapons storage area was uncovered in Kredi by Iraqi Police from the Qayyarah area. Kredi is located near Qayyarah, and the police were searching the area because of information that they received from a local individual.

Seven Iranian mortars and a suicide vest were found at the scene by the police as well as more than 60 Russian, Chinese, South African, and Yugoslavian mortar rounds; 130 Russian rockets; 230 high explosive hand grenades; 100 rocket propelled grenades, 150 pounds of bulk explosives; 70 Russian anti personnel landmines, and bomb making materials.

What is happening is what I predicted would happen back in June – we and the Iraqis are surrounding al-Qaeda strongholds one by one and decimating them. It is a classic mop-up operation. The noose has been tightening and moving with the fleeing terrorists. Now the terrorists are isolated in the north, pinned up against the Kurds (who will decimate them) and the Iranian border (their only exit out of Iraq now).

Nearly 6,000 Sunni Arab residents joined a security pact with American forces Wednesday in what U.S. officers described as a critical step in plugging the remaining escape routes for extremists flushed from former strongholds.

The new alliance — called the single largest single volunteer mobilization since the war began — covers the “last gateway” for groups such as al-Qaida in Iraq seeking new havens in northern Iraq, U.S. military officials said.

U.S. commanders have tried to build a ring around insurgents who fled military offensives launched earlier this year in the western Anbar province and later into Baghdad and surrounding areas. In many places, the U.S.-led battles were given key help from tribal militias — mainly Sunnis — that had turned against al-Qaida and other groups.

Extremists have sought new footholds in northern areas once loyal to Saddam Hussein’s Baath party as the U.S.-led gains have mounted across central regions.

This ain’t rocket science folks. Why do Iraqis turn in these terrorist to local authorities? Because these terrorists use these weapons on local Iraqis. The far left always underestimates the Iraqis, acting as if they can do nothing without being coerced and under threat of law. Well that is just a statement regarding the ignorant bias of the far left, not the capabilities and spirit of the Iraqis.

And those capabilities and spirit are spearheading a lot of reconciliation between Sunni and Shiia Muslims. Here is one clear example of reconciliation (without legislation mandating it) spreading across Iraq:

A senior Iraqi religious leader has called for tens of thousands of Sunni Arab fighters, allied to US forces in the fight against al-Qaeda, to be integrated into the regular security forces.

Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Ghafour al-Samarraie, head of the Sunni endowment, said that the men must be given a direction by Baghdad.

“These fighters must be integrated into the police and army,” he said on Wednesday.

…

The delegation of the Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars and the Sunni endowment met Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in an effort to unify the Iraqi people.

Al-Sistani said Shia and Sunni were ‘united
under one Kaaba, prayers and fasting’

Al-Sistani, the highest Shia authority in Iraq, called on Shia Muslims to defend the political and social rights of the Sunnis before defending their own rights.

“I am a servant of all Iraqis … I love everyone as religion is love … I wonder how enemies could split between Islamic sects”, the statement said quoting al-Sistani.

“These meetings between the Shia and Sunni scholars are important and useful as there are no real differences between Shias and Sunnis, yet there are philological differences that exist even inside the same sect.

Are we done in Iraq? Not yet, but we are definitely headed in the right direction.