Keep safe... 
now!
Posted on 11/19/2007 7:43:43 PM PST by jdm
BAGHDAD, Nov. 19 — Five months ago, Suhaila al-Aasan lived in an oxygen tank factory with her husband and two sons, convinced that they would never go back to their apartment in Dora, a middle-class neighborhood in southern Baghdad.
Today she is home again, cooking by a sunlit window, sleeping beneath her favorite wedding picture.
*snip*
The security improvements in most neighborhoods are real. Days now pass without a car bomb, after a high of 44 in the city in February. The number of bodies appearing on Baghdad’s streets has plummeted to about 5 a day, from as many as 35 eight months ago, and suicide bombings across Iraq fell to 16 in October, half the number of last summer and down sharply from a recent peak of 59 in March, the American military says.
As a result, for the first time in nearly two years, people are moving with freedom around much of this city. In more than 50 interviews across Baghdad, it became clear that while there were still no-go zones, more Iraqis now drive between Sunni and Shiite areas for work, shopping or school, a few even after dark. In the most stable neighborhoods of Baghdad, some secular women are also dressing as they wish. Wedding bands are playing in public again, and at a handful of once shuttered liquor stores customers now line up outside in a collective rebuke to religious vigilantes from the Shiite Mahdi Army.
Iraqis are clearly surprised and relieved to see commerce and movement finally increase, five months after an extra 30,000 American troops arrived in the country.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
ping.
NY TIMES!!!
Surprise, surprise!
I think some sycophant from the Times cut and pasted a quote about Hillary by accident.
I know the Punditocracy just can’t stand to tell the truth.
Sorry, didn’t mean to be a smarta$$ on this good news story, just couldn’t resist.
Now we know what Hillary did with Socks the Cat.
LOL!
The Dems MUST have a strategy to counter this. They are losing.
My guess is that they will just try to minimize everything that has happened.
Or they will try to take credit for it somehow.
And say they could have done it sooner!
I think this is great and I hope it continues. But because we’re getting so excited about it, I expect a huge response from the remaining terrorists, which the MSM/DNC will use to argue against the war and for a pullout. I think the public will be duped like Vietnam (TetO).
A huge attack with lots of lives lost. The meme becomes, look the gains were short lived, it’s hopeless, they’re back, it’ll never end, etc. All they need is a few spectactular attacks (same thing goes here in the US) and help from their MSM/DNC friends and the pendullum swings back the other way.
The said part will be seeing the dems and left blogs all but celebrate if and when it happens. These guys know us well having studied vietnam, sommalia, recent events, etc. They know how to manipulate the useful idiots and the media. Watch for a string of big attacks sometime soon or right before the 2008 election. They may be down, but they’re not out and they don’t need much to get the embolden the defeatists and sway the public who barely pays attention and accepts what the media feeds.
I think the GOP should recognize and make a point about all this progress, but caution that they can, may, and likely will carry out attacks, even major ones and we have to be prepared and not swayed if they do. Fact is, I don’t think the public understands how these guys work, that it’s all about media attention.
“My guess is that they will just try to minimize everything that has happened.”
Already being done. See Reid’s last comments. No progress. They’re also shifting the target from security to political progress.
“Or they will try to take credit for it somehow.” Doing that too.
They’re so lame and so predictable.
How much do you want to bet that Hillary will come out within the next few weeks and say “Remember, peoples, I voted to go into Iraq and I’m very proud of my vote; look at all that we’re accomplishing.”
If they could do big attacks, they would have.
They can’t.
5 bucks she does,donated to FR.
Lol! Chris Mathews on MSNBC has not mentioned Iraq or the good news coming out of Iraq in the past 3 weeks. ‘’NADA’’! It’s like it never happened at all!Too bad the RATS and the MSM are invested in defeat. It looks like OUR troops are winning and they are on the losing side again!
Agreed.
But...but...it’s the “very presence” of American troops in Iraq that is “creating more terrorists,” isn’t it?
Iraq should be awash with terrorists right about now, shouldn’t it? Shouldn’t it?
Oh wait, that's old propaganda....OK, got it now...there is nobody left to kill over there (heard a maroon caller on Rush Limbaugh say this). It must look like a ghost town now.
Hey, that's what I'm hearing over here anyway.
< /heavy sarcasm >
Review their history. They plan very well and time things very well. They are very patient. I am not implying that they have not been decimated and that their capabilities lessened, but don’t take for granted what it takes for them to pull off a major attack. Five individuals in five different parts of the country on the same day, trucks jam packed with explosives, sensitive (even if guard) targets. This has happened time and time again in Iraq. Don’t underestimate these guys. We’ve clearly made significant progress, but all it takes is them being on point 1% of the time. All’s I’m saying is let’s not get so over confident we back ourselves into a wall and hand over all this progress to the naysayers who will use it to argue, “look, they did it again, another corner turned, they said it was over and now look at this.” The Generals are citing progress, but they are also being cautious in how they speak of these successes and I think the blogs, news, GOP, and everyone else who actually wants to win should follow that lead. We’re in a good place, but it ain’t over and the left is pushing hard to declare defeat and yank the plud.
The Rat leadership is a Quagmire and we have won the war.
“They are utterly destroyed and defeated.” This is the kind of talk that’s gotten us in trouble for years. “Last throes” comments getting thrown back in our faces for years. This overconfidence is used by the dems against us.
“impossible for them to do it now.” again, speaking in absolutes is counter productive.
You’re entitled to your opinion and I hope your right.
“last four years and it did not happen” the infamous mosque bombing that was set off the huge spike in violence and dems’ claims of civil war?
“From all military perspectives we have won this war and Al Qaeda is utterly defeated.” If so, why are we still there? We won the war in 2003. We have not yet fully secured the peace. When we do, we’ll leave. We haven’t yet.
I'm sure you must have heard the new Obey mantra by now....."it's not that we're succeeding, there's just not anyone left for Al Qaeda to kill".
Liberals do such a good job of making themselves look like loons.
Amen my FRiend.
The US military will declare VICTORY against Al Qaeda by March 2008.
Why are you “doubling” Chris Matthews audience? :)
If the Old York Times is reporting the improvement, the Victory Parades can’t be too far behind. We are witnessing the Greatest Victory in our Lifetimes.
Pray for W and our Amazing Troops
Don't try us.
And the moral of the story is...when you get rid of al Qaeda good things happen.
I am being cautious.
That being said, it’s not like Al Qaeda in Iraq is just sitting around, innocent as churchmice, waiting until the NY Times says something before they go for a big attack.
If they could do a big attack, they would.
They can’t.
They aren’t waiting. They are dying and/or running.
Does the above mean that Al Qaeda is impotent or harmless? No.
...but it also means that Al Qaeda can’t hit us like it used to.
There’s a reason that Osama bin Laden said that the darkness in Iraq had turned pitch black for Al Qaeda.
AW, it’s all just a willful suspension of disbelief.
Keep safe... now!
There’s NO denying it now...the donkey party is screwed...
Pubs are way to cautious to point out success ... they are intimidated by the liberal MSM. It will have to be overwhelmingly conclusive that the surge has worked before they make any effort to take credit. It helps that the NY Times, of all the liberal publications, is reporting the positive turn in Iraq.
Harry and Nancy, what’s going on here?
Doom and Gloom and Black Rain;...did you ever try to look at things, thru an optimistic prism, every now and then? You sound so much like my wife...
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
That would not surprise me from the Queen of Triangulation.
No joke. Down the Orwellian Memory Hole.
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow
She will, but not before she’s nominated; she has enough trouble with the Barking Moonbat (BM for short) Wing of the Dems as it is, and they’re the ones who vote in primaries.
True. The press is waiting for a “Tet offensive” narrative. They want it so bad, they will likely do anything to make it happen, or contort events to make them appear to be a step back.
Interestingly, I don’t think that will happen until Iran feels that Hillary might be elected. Then, they will go hog wild in region, with the knowledge they can cut a favorable deal when she’s in office.
“How much do you want to bet that Hillary will come out within the next few weeks and say “Remember, peoples, I voted to go into Iraq and I’m very proud of my vote; look at all that we’re accomplishing.”
Something like that, it will be more like “only our loud dissent and holding this adminstration accountable caused the course to change.”
Backstabbing the troops, to save the troops.
..there is nobody left to kill over there...
its like the 800,000 dead they were citing this spring...
which is 4,000 per week continuously for 4 years..
which seems implausible.
Darn for the Democrats, who cynically bet on failure.
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