The U.S. military has made great headway in Iraq, and we are seeing the country make major strides toward self-sufficiency.But there's a lot of hard work ahead, and the Obama administration must keep its focus on supporting the fragile government and fighting the Iranian-backed militias who want to spread their Islamist agenda.
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As the White House recoils from months of bad news pouring out of Afghanistan, topped by the sacking of Gen. Stanley McChrystal and replacing him with Gen. David Petraus, there is actually good news to report from Iraq.
In a special August report from Bill Roggio, "Iraq's Not Over Yet," readers get the good news from Iraq, the progress our military is making, the way forward and the warning signs we cannot afford to miss.
Here's an excerpt:
The United States’ plan for the transition of security to Iraqi forces and drawdown of American troops in country to 50,000, which was crafted by the Bush administration and continued by the Obama administration, is on track. This will allow the United States to honorably withdraw from Iraq, leaving behind a country that can potentially be an ally in the heart of the Middle East. However, this scenario can occur only if the administration continues to see the plan through.
The situation in Iraq in July 2010 is one that only the most optimistic of Iraq watchers would have predicted in July 2007, at the height of the so-called “surge,” which saw the United States change its strategy in Iraq and pour an additional 30,000 troops into the country to partner with Iraqi forces and take on both the Sunni and Shia insurgencies. The surge, championed and executed by Petraeus, was a bold and risky move, one that many predicted would fail. Petraeus and the American and Iraqi troops have proved them wrong.
Today, Iraqi Security Forces handle the bulk of the fi ghting and policing in country, while U.S. forces, with some minor exceptions, serve in an “advise and assist” role. At the same time, joint U.S. and Iraqi special operations teams are ruthlessly hunting down al Qaeda’s leadership throughout the country. Earlier this year, Iraq held another successful election, and although the formation of a new government has been problematic, there are few signs that a return to the violence of 2005-2006 is anywhere near the horizon. In short, Iraq is moving along the right path and will continue to do so if the United States continues the course. This is somewhat ironic, given that President Obama, while on the campaign trail, dismissed Iraq as a war of choice and one that America needed to extract itself from, while he championed Afghanistan as a war of necessity. Today, the “war of choice” in Iraq is on the path to success, while serious doubts have been raised about the ability to win the “necessary war” in Afghanistan.
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