bloodletting.blog-city.com

What Victory Looks Like:

Are we winning? Doc Russia joins the chorus, which already includes me and the Belmont Club. That last voice looks at the trends not just for Iraq, al Qaeda and Islamism, but for the intifada as well.

The intifada has vented its suicidal wrath on Israelis, but in recent weeks criticism of the Palestinian Authority has ensconced itself in common parlance. "Not only was the intifada a failure, but we are a total failure. We achieved nothing in 50 years of struggle; we've achieved only our survival."

And as terrorist warfare slows to a gasping halt, Zubeidi sees the violence turning inward.

The handover in Iraq has been everything we hoped it would be. When, in April, we found our soldiers and Marines fighting al-Sadr's men, they faced outrage from the press and the protests here at home. When they fought them this week, there has been near silence about it. The only article on CNN's weekend edition focuses on Allawi's peace overtures, not on the slaughter of these hardened fighters by the far more deadly US Marines. We kept our promises. We put Iraq on the road to freedom, and we're helping to keep her there. Iraqis see it, know it, and even the press can't ignore it any more.

(An aside: CNN could use a better editor. That article includes this line:

Iraq has temporarily reinstated a limited version of its death penalty, the interim minister of state announced Sunday.

A limited version of the death penalty. Well, now, that is progress.)

This is what victory looks like. It's not over, and we continue to lose brave men to ambush and murder. We continue to see outrages in the press. But we are winning. It's a straight road to victory. We just need to carry on.