Analysis: US Now Winning Iraq War That Seemed Lost

[Rage for Order]

Source: AP / Yahoo News

The United States is now winning the war that two years ago seemed lost. Limited, sometimes sharp fighting and periodic terrorist bombings in Iraq are likely to continue, possibly for years. But the Iraqi government and the U.S. now are able to shift focus from mainly combat to mainly building the fragile beginnings of peace — a transition that many found almost unthinkable as recently as one year ago.

Despite the occasional bursts of violence, Iraq has reached the point where the insurgents, who once controlled whole cities, no longer have the clout to threaten the viability of the central government. That does not mean the war has ended or that U.S. troops have no role in Iraq. It means the combat phase finally is ending, years past the time when President Bush optimistically declared it had. The new phase focuses on training the Iraqi army and police, restraining the flow of illicit weaponry from Iran, supporting closer links between Baghdad and local governments, pushing the integration of former insurgents into legitimate government jobs and assisting in rebuilding the economy.

Scattered battles go on, especially against al-Qaida holdouts north of Baghdad. But organized resistance, with the steady drumbeat of bombings, kidnappings, assassinations and ambushes that once rocked the capital daily, has all but ceased. This amounts to more than a lull in the violence. It reflects a fundamental shift in the outlook for the Sunni minority, which held power under Saddam Hussein. They launched the insurgency five years ago. They now are either sidelined or have switched sides to cooperate with the Americans in return for money and political support.

Statistics show violence at a four-year low. The monthly American death toll appears to be at its lowest of the war — four killed in action so far this month as of Friday, compared with 66 in July a year ago. From a daily average of 160 insurgent attacks in July 2007, the average has plummeted to about two dozen a day this month. On Wednesday the nationwide total was 13. Beyond that, there is something in the air in Iraq this summer. In Baghdad, parks are filled every weekend with families playing and picnicking with their children. That was unthinkable only a year ago, when the first, barely visible signs of a turnaround emerged.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080726/ap_on_an/iraq_winning_the_war

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This certainly is wonderful news. Can our troops come home now?

[TwilightGardener]

1. Yay! We won! Time to withdraw forces. On a timetable.

[BlooInBloo]

6. :)

[elleng]

'Winning?'

What the **** is that?

Who can tell?

[opihimoimoi]

2. For all we know, this could well be a LULL....maybe in 3 years, 5 years...who knows.

We cannot have signatories to Peace agreement...no one will sign for the insurgents...

[rwheeler31]

3. What did we win?

[Elidor]

18. Ponies! Ponies for everyone!

And now that we won, we can stay there forever! YAY!!!

[Union Thug]

4. "in exchange for money..." That would be your money and mine...

...and ethnic cleansing and Al-Sadr's cease fire...

And, if I were one of the guerilla factions, I would be biding my time, stock piling weapons and waiting.

So, anyway, if we have to bribe people to stop blowing eachother to bits, how is that different than appeasing the 'terraists?' What happens when the cash flow stops - now that they understand how to open the cash tap?

[jobycom]

5. So the violence we caused that slaughtered a million innocent people is finally slowing

and we claim we're winning the war.

Yeah, the violence will eventually die down. We will eventually colonize and enslave Iraq. The war will eventually end because the people who live there will eventually decide that they need peace.

But after a million dead, four thousand of our own killed, $4 a gallon gasoline, a National Guard unable to respond to our own domestic catastrophes when we need them, the destruction of the American reputation abroad, and a deficit so large we may never recover, I think any claims that this war has been won by anyone borders on psychopathic delusion. It's been said before, and it's still true: we make a desert, and call it peace.

[mdmc]

7. USA!

:woohoo:

[Botany]

8. Please

Saturday, July 26, 2008
War News for Saturday, July 26, 2008
July 24 airpower summary:


Reported Security incidents:

Baghdad:
#1: A roadside bomb targeted an Iraqi army patrol in Ghazaliyah, western Baghdad at 3 p.m. Friday injuring two soldiers.

#2: A roadside bomb detonated in the afternoon inside a popular market in the Karrada district of central Baghdad, wounding six people, including three security members, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Around 2 pm a roadside bomb targeted civilians in Kamb Sara in Adhamiyah neighborhood (north Baghdad). Six people were injured (including 1 policeman and two Sahwa members).

#3: Another roadside bomb went off before midday near an Iraqi army patrol in Baghdad's northern neighborhood of Sleikh, wounding two soldiers and a civilian along with damaging one of the patrol's vehicles, the source said.

#4: A third explosion occurred in the day near some dustmen in the al-Jihad neighborhood in southwestern Baghdad, injuring two of them and caused damages to a nearby vehicle, the source added.

#5: Around 3 p.m. gunmen attacked and injured awakening council official in Daowdi neighborhood, west Baghdad.

#6: Around 4 p.m. a roadside bomb targeted awakening council member, a U.S. backed militia, in Sleikh neighborhood, injuring two militia members.

#7: Police found one dead body throughout Baghdad in Baladiyat neighborhood.


Kirkuk:
#1: On Friday night a gunman with silencer opened fire on an American patrol in downtown Kirkuk. A 14 year-old kid was killed in that incident .

#2: In the morning gunmen opened fire on a combined patrol from Iraqi security forces and Americans. One Iraqi policeman was killed and another was injured.


Mosul:
#1: A policeman was killed by gunmen fire in clashes in the western part of Mosul city on Saturday, a police source in Ninewa province said.

[KittyWampus]

12. yeah but, THE SURGE!

[pretzel4gore]

9. this is very annoying!

them goddam Iraqis! Just because the nazipoohs paid them truckloads of US dollars, and made all sorts of deals, the Iraqi fighters suddenly become all cooperative and ageeably friendly with the nazipoopooh babywipes!
Jesus h keerist!
May the donkey's offal reeking steam mountain loom over the bushnuts and their delirious spawn, forever! amen!....
goddammit!

[bluestateguy]

10. I opposed this war in 2003, in 2004, in 2005, in 2006, in 2007 and 2008.

You KNOW where I stand. No flip-floppery from me.

This war was WRONG.

"Yeah but..."

Wolf, you know where I stand.

[BearSquirrel2]

11. There is no violence because the insurgents WON!!!

There is minimum violence because the insurgents won a seat at the political table. Voila!!!! THEY WON!!!! The only thing left is for the US to declare victory and leave.

[aquart]

14. Things are so peaceful when most everybody's dead.

Or fled.

[aquart]

13. Winning WHAT?

[The Liberal Thinker]

15. It's great that the violence is down.

I'm proud of the troops and I'll acknowledge that in terms of lessening violence, the surge actually worked miracles. But has there been any progress on the nation-building front? Not really. That's why we need to pull out.

[bemildred]

16. Oh bullshit.

Less intense fighting does not equate to winning, it never has, it never will. Winning means you have achieved what you set out to do, nothing less. Go back and read what the purported goals of the invasion of Iraq were, and you will see that NONE of them were accomplished, and it cost far more than was claimed, and has already lasted far longer than it was supposed to. I won't even go into the unintended and undesired "side-effects" of stupid Bushite policies in Iraq.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

17. Why does the song "Flirtin' With Disaster" come to mind?

As soon as some asshole starts yelling "We win! We win!" they're gonna piss someone off big time and something major will be let loose.

Guaran-fucking-teed. (Ask Georgie Boy about that little declaration HE made on the deck of that carrier a few years back...)

Besides, all you have to do is ask the thousands of maimed and mentally broken veterans their opinion and they'll set you straight on it all in a hot second.

"Win", my rosy red heiney.

So, how's that little Iran thang coming along? What do we have left- a week and counting down? :mad:

[OhioChick]

19. "Winning the War?"

Yeah, right. :eyes:

[krispos42]

20. Yay! So after 5½ years, $700 billion spent, 4,200 Americans dead,

750,000 Iraqis dead, 30,000 Americans wounded, several times that of Americans psychologically scarred, 2 million Iraqi international refugees, 2 million Iraqis internally displaced, uncountable millions of Iraqis with physical and/or mental trauma, the entire WORLD spending trillions of dollars extra for refined petroleum products, the creation of a large, young, and very angry Arab and/or Muslim generation of terrorism recruits, the emergence of Iran as the region's dominant military power, and the virtually complete destruction of Iraq's infrastructure, government, and military...




... we're really close and on the path to being exactly the was things were the day before we invaded.


<golf clap>

[Newsjock]

21. Well, that settles it!

If the Associated Press and Washington bureau chief Ron "Keep the Faith" Fournier say the war is over, then the war must be over.

[VP505]

22. Thank You AP and Yahoo News

great job of "catapulting the propaganda" George, Dick and John McSame will be soooo proud!

[OwnedByFerrets]

23. I say FU to anyone and everyone who says we

are winning or have won in Iraq. Ask those 1.2 million who have died...or ask their loved ones. Or ask those 4 million who have been chased from their homes and from their country. A big FUCK YOU to anyone who uses the words success and Iraq in the same sentence.

[johnnydrama]

24. Sorry AP

A war that was supposed to last 3 months, cost a hundred lives or so, and 10 billion can never be won after that 3 months, hundred lives and 10 billion turn into 6 years, 4100+ lives and 700 billion.

[Phred42]

25. There is no such thing as WINNING an Occupation!

The WAR was over at "Mission Accomplished" - It's been an OCCUPATION ever since.

Occupations are not won or lost they simply begin by force of the aggressor - and end by force of the Occupied.

No one EVER WINS an Occupation. Everyone Looses.

[DLnyc]

26. IMHO, combat is winding down because the Bush administration has

agreed to
1)drop its demands for "production sharing agreements" for American oil companies (i.e. transferring ownership of Iraqi nationalized oil from the Iraqi people to a few well-placed American companies)
and
2)drop its demands for permanent bases and immunity for American personnel in Iraq.

In other words, 'we' (i.e. Haliburton, Exxon, Bechtel, etc.) are conceding defeat, which is subtly different than 'winning'.

[Barrett808]

27. This is a pretty strange puff piece for AP, cheerleading the main neo-con talking points

Just about every sentence is thick with spin. What gives?

[opihimoimoi]

28. to give credibility to the Cainites of course

[Phred42]

29. Ooooo - " McCaininites" I like it!

:toast: