The ghoulish SurrenderMedia is all atwitter with the recent spate of violence by al-Qaeda and its few remaining sympathizers. al-Qaeda is going for one last bloody effort to remain relevant and get its blood soaked results on the nightly news. And it will kill and maim people – mostly Muslims now. Which puts America and its allies in the better position of being protectors to al-Qaeda’s victims, creating an ever larger wedge between the Bin Laden’s butchers and the new Iraq.

Much of the violence is now in the northern provinces, the areas where al-Qaeda has been chased during the first stage of The Surge. If you look at a map of Iraq you can keep track of where the latest incidents are focused – and they are all up in the North in Ninawa (Nineveh), Salah ad din (Salahadin) and Diyala. These are the areas al-Qaeda has fled to, but they do no hold any major cities or anything like that. They seem to be fleeing towards Syria or possibly Iran.

The Iraqi government is already planning on shifting forces that are from this region and sent south in support of the initial Surge back into these regions:

raq’s defense minister promised yesterday to wage a new crackdown in a volatile province northeast of Baghdad where militants are trying to regroup after being routed from their urban stronghold there last summer.

Suicide attacks have killed more than 20 people in the last three days in Diyala Province, a tribal patchwork of Sunni Arabs, Shi’ites, and Kurds that stretches from Baghdad to the border with Iran. Defense Minister Abdul-Qader al-Obeidi said preparations had begun for a fresh military operation in the provincial capital, Baqubah, about 35 miles from Baghdad.

“If we succeed in controlling areas of Diyala close to Baghdad, the rate of incidents in Baghdad decreases by 95 percent,” Obeidi told the Associated Press.

The comment about reducing violence by 95% is quite telling. It means coalition forces have identified the last large remnants of al-Qaeda in Iraq and they are attempting one last gasp. I have said many times over the last year “as goes Diyala so goes Iraq”. This is because Diyala is the acid test for the future of Iraq:

But it has been a constant challenge to subdue extremists in Diyala, which is the eastern gateway to Baghdad. More than two years ago, US forces thought they had turned the corner and American commanders handed over substantial control of the province to the Iraqi Army in August 2005.

A year later, the Al Qaeda-backed Islamic State of Iraq declared Baqubah as its capital.

This summer, US and Iraqi forces launched a new drive in Diyala, and the Americans have fostered groups of former militants who have switched sides in the fight against Al Qaeda. But any gains are hard-won: On Friday, a pair of suicide bombings less than 10 miles apart killed at least 23 people – more than half of them members of the anti-Al Qaeda groups.

Don’t let the reporting mislead – it has been hard fought but consistent progress in Diyala. What terrorists survive do so hiding out in the country – they dare not set foot into the cities which are well protected by American and Iraqi and local forces. There have been many attempts in the region to take back ground – all have failed.

And on the political front their are other signs of the benefits coming from fighting a common enemy side-by-side. The Sunnis continue to warm to more joint arrangements with the Americans and the central government:

Iraq’s Sunni Arab vice president said Sunday he was in favor of a strategic cooperation agreement with the United States, saying the proposed pact would give Iraq a “strong and honest” partner it needs.

Tariq al-Hashemi’s support for the agreement, scheduled to be negotiated and adopted by July next year, signals a significant policy shift by the established political leadership of the Sunni Arab community on the presence and influence of the United States in Iraq.

Sunni extremists have led an insurgency against U.S. and allied Iraqi forces since 2003, but several insurgent groups have changed sides in recent months and joined the U.S. military in the fight against al-Qaida in Iraq. The move won back some of the clout the once-dominant Sunni Arabs lost when their patron — Saddam Hussein — was overthrown by the Americans in 2003.

However, al-Hashemi and his Iraqi Islamic Party represent the moderate mainstream of the once-dominant Sunni Arab community and his support for the proposed pact with the Americans could widen the gap between them and Sunni hard-liners.

The battle for the heart and soul of Islam is being fought and won in Iraq. Contrary to the hand wringing by the democrats, the moderate Iraqis are standing up to extremists (and paying with their lives) to take the Iraq’s future away from al-Qaeda and like minded groups.

And let’s not forget most of Iraq is fairly peaceful and in Iraqi control already. One clear sign of this is the scheduled end of UK military deployments in Southern Iraq. For them it truly is “Mission Accomplished”. It seems the dreams of the far left for failure and humiliation of America and the West in Iraq will never come true. Shame on them for ever looking forward to such a future, but since they only sit on the sidelines and carp they really never had a say in the outcome anyway. As the commercial notes – less words and more action. But even then the left could not snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

al-Qaeda’s brutal atrocities on Muslims – which continue today – made it clear which way Iraq would eventually head. No people can abide that kind of brutality and Iraq has proven that fact of human nature once again. The story of Iraq is now two different themes: (1) the fight for independence of Iraq from al-Qaeda, (2) the horrors of al-Qaeda against fellow humans:

Religious vigilantes have killed at least 40 women this year in the southern Iraqi city of Basra because of how they dressed, their mutilated bodies found with notes warning against “violating Islamic teachings,” the police chief said Sunday.

…

The women of Basra are being horrifically murdered and then dumped in the garbage with notes saying they were killed for un-Islamic behavior,” Khalaf told The Associated Press. He said men with Western clothes or haircuts are also attacked in Basra, an oil-rich city some 30 miles from the Iranian border and 340 miles southeast of Baghdad.

“Those who are behind these atrocities are organized gangs who work under cover of religion, pretending to spread the instructions of Islam, but they are far from this religion,” Khalaf said.

The more innocent people al-Qaeda and their ilk kill and harm, the more families, neighborhoods, communities and elements of Islam will rise up to destroy al-Qaeda. It is hard to fathom anyone would prefer these animals succeed against America. It is hard to believe anyone would propose abandoning the Iraqis to the bloodlust of animals like this. But we all know the pursuit of power, especially political power, can corrupt any one’s soul.

Update: Iraqi forces are celebrating their succesful efforts to free a southern Iraq city of the al-Qaeda animals – probably one of the reasons the UK feels it can now reduce its forces in Iraq.