The US is planning on reducing its forces in Iraq this summer if the trend of success we have seen over the last 6-7 months continues to hold.

Admiral Gregory Smith, Director of the Multi-National Force’s (MNF) Communications Division, told a news conference on Sunday that five American brigades would be withdrawn in July.

These five brigades, he said, were among 20 others to be pulled out as of end of July.

All indications are our successful efforts in Iraq will continue to reduce the violence, defeat al-Qaeda and provide the window for more political progress. Iraq seems to be firmly on the way to a new future, one the Surrendercrats on the left would have denied that country if it and run away and given the country over to the jackboot of al-Qaeda, as the Dems demanded a year ago now.

I think every one but the Dems and Bin Laden are glad President Bush did not listen the Surrendercrats’ dangerously mistaken plans on Iraq. If he had Bin Laden would be living in an old Saddam Hussein palace right now planning on ways to attack Europe and the US.

Instead the picture of Iraq today is a democratically governed center of Islam, where the faithful pilgrimage to holy sites and pray:

Thousands of Shiite Muslims from across Iraq started Monday a journey on foot to the holy city of Karbala to commemorate the killing of Imam Hussein, the Prophet Mohammed’s grandson, amid heightened security. Many pilgrims carrying food and water supplies walked for hundreds of kilometres to the city, following centuries-old rituals, in the hope that walking would earn them more rewards and blessings from God.

The former regime of Saddam Hussein banned all Shiite religious ceremonies, including the ritual of travelling on foot to the shrine of Karbala, traditionally held to be the tomb of Hussein, who died in the Battle of Karbala in 680 AD.

The battle was one in a series of conflicts between Sunnis and Shiites.

Young and old people and even women carrying babies, all in black and stripes of green and carrying colourful banners, do the journey on foot despite the cold.

Locals along the roads to Karbala play host to pilgrims passing by, offering food, drinks and shelter.

Other pilgrims sing odes to the imam, the icon of Shiite Muslims.

“I do the journey to renew my commitment to Imam Hussein and his courage to stand up to injustices,” said Oum Mortada, a 41-year-old woman dressed in black, the traditional colour of mourning.

I doubt al-Qaeda is so dumb as to attack a holy pilgrimage. The reason Islam has turned on al-Qaeda is due to their mindless massacring of fellow Muslims so they can get headlines in western news media outlets. But even if they were that dumb, al-Qaeda would only reinforce and grow the tide that is turning against it in Islam. So let’s all pray for a peaceful pilgrimage as a sign of a peaceful future for Iraq

BTW, security has improved so much that even the UN has had to take notice and is ready to help repatriate those Iraqis displaced by al-Qaeda’s blood lust:

The UN’s top refugee official has hinted that security in Iraq may soon have improved enough for some of the 4m Iraqi refugees to begin returning home.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, told the BBC the UNHCR and Iraqi government were planning an assessment of conditions.

Some 2m Iraqis have fled abroad, while another 2m are displaced inside Iraq.

In December, the UNHCR said the situation in Iraq was “not yet conducive to large-scale return”.

Everyone of those Iraqis is heading back to hear the horror stories of Bin Laden’s butchers and the stories of Iraqi heros who drove al-Qaeda’s killers out of their homelands. And that is the story of Iraq for the history books – that and how close the world came to losing Iraq because of some partisans who wanted to run away and hand the country over to the Bin Laden’s butchers.