[vbmoneyspender]

The war was all about the Sunni-Arabs thinking they could fight their way back into power. To defeat that mindset two things had to happen. First, the Sunni-Arabs had to be convinced of our staying power -- President Bush's implementation of the surge accomplished that goal. Secondly, and more importantly, that Sunni-Arabs had to be convinced of the Shiites' staying power. The Shiites did that and more after the Golden Mosque bombing. In fact, the Shiite reaction to the Golden Mosque bombing convinced the Sunnis that if they continued with the insurgency they might lose everything.

With regard to Al Qaeda, I think they made two very serious tactical errors. First, the Golden Mosque bombing was a critical mistake because it forced the Shiites' hand against the Sunni-Arabs in Iraq. Secondly, Al Qaeda made a critical mistake when they made it exceedingly dangerous for Western tv reporters to get into areas like the Anbar province and south of Baghdad. The greatest ally Al Qaeda has had in this fight is our media and by making it difficult for the MSM to get video out of Iraq, Al Qaeda made it hard for their MSM allies to turn Iraq into another Vietnam.

[ari-freedom]

Saddam’s execution was also a big factor. As long as he was still alive there was always that chance, that hope he could be brought back to rule again.

[CutePuppy]

Exactly. It’s less so that our “surge” worked, it’s that their “surge” in “violence”, which did help bring Democrats to power in 2006, finally fizzled when President Bush held the ground and held off the Democrats’ media and political - elections’ follow-up - “surge” in DC, on troops withdrawal or “redeployment”.

General Petraeus competent and confident testimony - in contrast to our previous (post-Tommy Franks) Iraq commanders - on Capitol Hill was the final nail in both of their “surges”.