Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Mission Complete -- Victory in Al Anbar Province


The success of the Surge has moved Iraq from a front-page story to A17. You probably missed this occurrence over the weekend that indicates the success of the Surge in Iraq and that the Government of Iraq is indeed standing up. As they stand up, we stand down. Below is an excerpt from a salute to this fact found in the Wall Street Journal. To read the full article you must be a subscriber to their online or paper edition.

"Two years ago, on September 11, 2006, the Washington Post stirred an election-year uproar with this chilling dispatch:

"The chief of intelligence for the Marine Corps in Iraq recently filed an unusual secret report concluding that the prospects for securing that country's western Anbar province are dim and that there is almost nothing the U.S. military can do to improve the political and social situation there . . .

"But there was something we could do: Pursue a different counterinsurgency strategy and commit more troops. And on Monday, U.S. forces formally handed control of a now largely peaceful Anbar to the Iraqi military. "We are in the last 10 yards of this terrible fight. The goal is very near," said Major-General John Kelly, commander of U.S. forces in Anbar, in a ceremony with U.S., Iraqi and tribal officials. Very few in the American media even noticed this remarkable victory."

That is from the September 2nd Wall Street Journal.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is quite an accomplishment for our troops - so of course the press has to bury it in the papers or downplay it. Congratulations to the hard working military!

Dad29 said...

One small step for man...