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Iraq is still Iraq, but end of al-Qaeda in Iraq puts end truly in sight
NY Daily News ^ | December 08 2008 | Michael Totten

Posted on 12/08/2008 1:25:15 PM PST by knighthawk

I spent the last two weeks of last month as an embedded reporter with the United States Army in Baghdad and was disappointed to see that, despite the overwhelming success of the surge, Iraq is as rundown and dysfunctional as ever. Yes, the country is less violent now than at any time since the U.S. invaded in 2003, but Iraq is still Iraq.

Many Americans and Iraqis I spoke to feel a sense of dread and foreboding about what will happen when American forces soon begin to withdraw. Without the presence of American soldiers as peacekeepers, Gen. David Petraeus' brilliant counterinsurgency strategy will be moot. Many believe the remaining terrorists and insurgents will respond with a countersurge of their own, or that Iraqis might slug it out with one another in the power vacuum.

Despite that gloomy prognosis, however, the most critical American foreign policy objective has been achieved: al-Qaeda in Iraq has been defeated.

(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: alqaeda; alqaedainiraq; iraq; oif

1 posted on 12/08/2008 1:25:17 PM PST by knighthawk
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To: MizSterious; Nix 2; green lantern; BeOSUser; Brad's Gramma; dreadme; Turk2; keri; ...

Ping


2 posted on 12/08/2008 1:27:23 PM PST by knighthawk (We will always remember We will always be proud We will always be prepared so we may always be free)
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To: knighthawk

You know what’s gonna happen, don’t you? Obama will get the credit for “winning” the war in Iraq.........


3 posted on 12/08/2008 1:34:12 PM PST by Red Badger (Never has a man risen so far, so fast and is expected to do so much, for so many, with so little...)
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To: knighthawk
Maybe what Michael Totten is really saying is Iraq is not a first world country. Many less traveled people are shocked when confronted with the everyday life of a third world country.
4 posted on 12/08/2008 1:40:15 PM PST by WesternPacific (I am tired of voting for the lesser of two evils!)
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To: knighthawk

Iraq is still Iraq....what on earth did he expect?
Spoken like a true liberal elitist who expected Iraq to be Switzerland a month after the Saddam statue came down.


5 posted on 12/08/2008 2:43:03 PM PST by Buckeye McFrog
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