"They're really making some serious progress. People are turning these guys in left and right. Some of them are following them home and then reporting where they live."
This is what we are being told even by a few embeded reporters at this point. Once they see with thier own eyes, such as one embeded with the Marines participating the just concluded operation Spear, instead of sitting around in airconditioned apartments at the Rihayd hotel in Baghdad, we tend to get more accurate reporting.
But lets face it. This is no picnic. The whole region of Al Anbar has long been seen as very resistive, and most are of the Sunni sect, very independent. But as they see with their own eyes, and feel the knife at their throats they are starting to see just what this insurgency realy represents. During the early stages of operation Spear a few of our Marines where reported to have told a reporter that they watched as the local tribe lobed mortars and shot at the foreign terrorist who where trying to take over their town.
I am sure we shall hear more of this type thing in the months to come.
The new Iraqi government will make some kind of deal with them to allow a certain amount of smuggling and certain types. Just enough to keep the tribes happy and they'll go after the terrorists (just now with us). That's fine by me.
Some of the tribes have figured out that we're doing a lot of good in Iraq, those will be the ones who will eventually join process. Still, the bad guys will be pretty much left alone and they in turn will leave the government and us alone.