An NYT Iraqi Reporter On Security In Baghdad & The Need For Americans To Stay In Iraq

Mohamed Hussein, an Iraqi reporter for the NYT, recently returned to Iraq from Syria where he had gone to escape the violence of Baghdad in 2006. He is amazed by the changes in security, grateful to the Americans, and warns of the dire consequences that will occur if the U.S. leaves Iraq before the gains in security are made permanent.

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This from Mr. Hussein writing in the NYT:

Mohamed Hussein is an Iraqi employee of The New York Times in Baghdad. He left Iraq on New Year’s Day in 2007 to escape the sectarian violence from Shiite militias and Sunni insurgents who were both active in his mixed neighborhood. He returned last week, after 15 months out of Iraq. . . .

BAGHDAD — I came back to Baghdad last week.

First, it is important to mention the main cause that made me leave everything behind and go to Syria. By the end of 2006 my neighborhood had become an unbearable place. No one could continue there. It was without any simple services, from bakery shops to the hospital and physicians. They all closed their doors and left.
But the real cause is something hidden inside me that affected me more. . . .

The other more important cause that made me leave was that it seemed like someone had started a campaign to assassinate everyone living in my area, no matter from which side -Sunni or Shiite - as they just needed numbers of people who had to be killed.

In Syria I did not really get any rest because although my wife and children came with me, my parents stayed behind. They were alone and they are both aged people, so they did not think anyone would target them. . . .

After spending more than a year in Syria one day my father called me saying: “You can now return, and do not worry. Everything is fine now.”

. . . I wanted to return, but at the same time I hesitated. I wanted to know if the situation there was as people said, or if they just exaggerated.

During my travel from Syria to Baghdad I was completely relaxed. There were no worries, no fear of looters and terrorists with Al Qaeda, or Ansar al-Sunna (Protectors of the Sunni), Jaish al-Mohammed (Army of Mohammed) who used to control everything on the expressway between Syria and Baghdad.

Then when we stopped to get some rest near a big restaurant called Bilaad ash-Sham I saw many Iraqi and Syrian buses filled with travelers, and many four-wheel-drive vehicles.

They told me that everything was going fine and that stories that I had heard about the security situation in some Baghdad districts were right.

I reached Baghdad at 6 a.m. . . .

. . . I had heard about: the huge difference in security, which was much better than when I left.

. . . It was a really strange feeling to see my neighborhood again. In some ways it was the same, in others different. The main road had become ugly because there are now many damaged buildings and shops, and I noticed the marks of bullets and shrapnel everywhere around.

At the end of the journey when we reached the main entrance of my neighborhood my mother told me “Just slow down and say ‘Asalaam alaikum,’ (Peace be with you). Do not tell them you were in Syria.” She was afraid they would think I was a wanted man who had run away.

At that moment everything I had heard before seemed not right and I became more anxious with each meter I came closer to the checkpoint. Then I turned my head to the left and I saw the biggest cement wall I have ever seen, which encircles my neighborhood.

There were two Iraqi soldiers standing at the checkpoint. One of them stopped me and told me to open the trunk and engine. The other smiled, saying: “It is the day of bombed cars.”

He inspected my car with an explosive detector device. The other was just looking at us and it seemed that he recognized my mother’s face because he said: “Hi, auntie.”
Now I felt really safe because those people were working properly, not like the security forces in my neighborhood before who were making a secure path during the night for militia members to pass through, targeting everything there.

I think that the Iraqi police and army are working in the right way because there is an American military center inside my neighborhood. But all the people I met said that if the Americans left, those militias would eat our flesh without mercy.
I spent my first night without hearing any kind of shooting and mortar bombing, not like a year earlier when my daughter was asking me about all the sounds around and I was telling her, “Do not panic, baby, that is fireworks.”

This morning I heard the man who sells cooking gas knocking on the cylinders shouting “gaz, gaz, gaz ” which is something that had not happened for two years in my neighborhood.

This meant that all the things I heard about the improvements are true. Even the people are more friendly and I can say that there is now a kind of mutual trust between the people and the soldiers, not like before when there was no trust between each other.

Now, maybe if we think deeply about it, we will find that each needs the other. People need the soldiers to secure them. At the same time the U.S. troops are now in a safe place, maybe they can have more than one Green Zone.

Will it stay safe or not?

I guess that all depends on the American troops, since we will not have qualified Iraqi forces soon. Although most Iraqi forces are sincere you find some have been infiltrated by groups of gunmen and sectarian people who made the mess all around us.

So we still need the Americans because if they intend to leave, there will be something like a hurricane which will extract everything - people, buildings and even trees. Everything that has happened and all that safety will be past, just like a sweet dream.

As people say in my neighborhood: “The Americans are now Ansar al Sunna.” Protectors of the Sunni.

Read the entire article. Wow. Of all places I would expect to see this article, the NYT was the last. My hats off to them for publishing it.

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Sadr Criticizes Iran, the ISCI Meets Iran, & Maliki Continues The Offensive

To call Iraqi politics byzantine is an oversimplification. Maliki's Iraqi government appears the clear winner at this point, as Sadr has backed down in Basra and elsewhere in Iraq. This matter is far from over as Maliki continues to demand that the militias in Basra hand over their weapons and appears ready to force the issue. And now Sadr has lashed out at Iranian intervention in Iraq.

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PM Maliki welcomed the unilateral ceasefire called by Sadr (see here) and there is some indication that he is considering or has agreed to calls for at least a partial amnesty of Mahdi Army members currently being held by the government. Nonetheless, Maliki is moving more forces into Basra and fully intends to disarm the militias in Basra to the extent possible. Further, members of the rival Shia party, ISCI, met with the head of Iran's Qods force to ask them to stop supplying Sadr's Mahdi militia. This from Bill Rogio at the Long War Journal:

One day after Muqtada al Sadr, the leader of the Mahdi Army, called for his fighters to abandon combat, the fighting in Basrah has come to a near-halt and the Iraqi security forces are patrolling the streets. While Sadr spokesman said the Iraqi government agreed to Sadr's terms for the ceasefire, Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki has said the security forces will continue operations in Basrah in the south. Meanwhile, the Mahdi Army took heavy casualties in Basrah, Nasiriyah, Babil, and Baghdad over the weekend, despite Sadr's call for the end of fighting.

Maliki was clear that operations would continue in the South. "The armed groups who refuse al Sadr's announcement and the pardon we offered will be targets, especially those in possession of heavy weapons," Maliki said, referring to the 10 day amnesty period for militias to turn in heavy and medium weapons. "Security operations in Basra will continue to stop all the terrorist and criminal activities along with the organized gangs targeting people."

The Iraqi military said it was moving in more forces into the south after admitting it was surprised by the level of resistance encountered in Basrah. "Fresh military reinforcements were sent to Basra to start clearing a number of Basra districts of wanted criminals and gunmen taking up arms," said Brigadier General Abdel Aziz al Ubaidi, the operations chief for the Ministry of Defense. "Preparations for fresh operations have been made to conduct raids and clearance operations in Basra... the military operations would continue to restore security in Basra."

The reasons behind Sadr's call for a cessation in fighting remain unknown, but reports indicate the Mahdi Army was having a difficult time sustaining its operations and has taken heavy casualties. "Whatever gains [the Mahdi Army] has made in the field [in Basrah], they were running short of ammunition, food, and water," an anonymous US military officer serving in South told The Long War Journal. "In short [the Mahdi Army] had no ability to sustain the effort.

TIME's sources in Basrah paint a similar picture. "There has been a large-scale retreat of the Mahdi Army in the oil-rich Iraqi port city because of low morale and because ammunition is low due to the closure of the Iranian border," the magazine reported.

McClatchy Newspapers indicated a member of the Maliki's Dawa party and the leader of the Badr Organization, the military wing of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, traveled to Qom, Iran to lobby Qods Forces officers to get Sadr to halt the fighting. The trip "had two aims, lawmakers said: to ask Sadr to stand down his militia and to ask Iranian officials to stop supplying weapons to Shiite militants in Iraq." The two men met with Brigadier General Qassem Suleimani, the commander of Iran’s Qods Force, the foreign special operations branch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps.

The Mahdi Army has also taken high casualties since the fighting began on March 25. According to an unofficial tally of the open source reporting from the US and Iraqi media and Multinational Forces Iraq, 571 Mahdi Army fighters have been killed, 881 have been wounded, 490 have been captured, and 30 have surrendered over the course of seven days of fighting. . . .

Read the entire article, there is much more.

The LWJ does not mention the Iranian response to the ISCI meeting, but it must have been positive as it appears that Sadr has now publicly denounced Iran. This from Meir Javedanfar at Pajamas Media:

Feeling the heat of the recent offensive against his forces around Iraq, Muqtada Al Sadr, who has long been suspected of receiving support from the Iranian government, decided to publicly condemn the Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei.

His verbal attack was an unprecedented turn of events for the young Shiite, who for the last year has been traveling to Iran on several occasions to complete his theological studies in order to become an Ayatollah himself. Western security sources have long suspected that these trips have also been used in order to receive financial assistance from Iran, and to coordinate the Mahdi army’s military and political strategy with the leadership in Tehran.

There are important reasons behind his offensive against Khameini.

Primarily, Al Sadr is furious at the fact that members of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI), have joined the Iraqi army’s offensive against his forces in important areas such as Baghdad and Basra.

ISCI, which is led by Ayatollah Abdul Aziz al-Hakim has the support of middle and upper class Shiites in Iraq, while Al Sadr’s Mahdi army has the backing of poor Shiites. Al Sadr is not only upset because ISCI has decided to turn its guns against fellow Shiites, but also at the fact that ISCI has been the recipient of a larger amount of aid from Tehran than his organization. This may lead Al Sadr to believe that ISCI has embarked on this adventure, with Tehran’s blessing. This belief would explain why, during his controversial interview with Al Jazeera on Saturday night, Al Sadr condemned what he called “Iranian intervention in Iraq’s security and politics.”

Presumably, his hope is that by condemning and distancing himself Tehran, he could get more local grass root support inside Iraq; something which he could use later on in order to stage a political and military comeback.

While its too early to declare victory and celebrate, nevertheless, Al Sadr’s recent move can be considered as an achievement for the US, in its ongoing struggle with Tehran over influence in Iraq.

Until now, Tehran has been masterfully controlling both Al Sadr and ISCI allies as a tool to increase its influence. Whether or not Washington sanctioned Maliki’s recent operations against the Mahdi army; the rift created between Iraq’s two major Shiite organizations is making Iran’s Iraqi adventure more cumbersome at least in the immediate future.

. . . For now, Washington and Al Maliki’s government must use the recent military setbacks for Al Sadr as an opportunity to reach out to poor Iraqis who form the basis of Al Sadr’s support. Unless economic assistance is provided to improve their lives, and security, Tehran could step in. . . .

It would not be the first time that Tehran has supported two opposing sides in a conflict, and it would not be the last either.

Read the entire article. The more the situation in Iraq clarifies, the murkier it becomes. That said, this appears mostly positive from the U.S. standpoint.

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The War On Sadr Begins - & The WP Throws Their Support to Sadr (Updated)

For Iraq to create a functioning democracy, it has always been a question of when rather than if U.S. and Iraqi forces would have to deal with Sadr and his Iranian backed Mahdi militia. It would appear that, despite the six month extension to the cease fire proclaimed by Sadr in February, the time for dealing with the Sadr's Mahdi militia is now.




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Sadr's Iranian backed Mahdi militia is now in open revolt in Basra and Baghdad as well as other areas in the south of Iraq. U.S. forces have joined the fight. The spark for this fight was Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki's order to his army to retake Basra - the major Iraqi port - from the "criminal elements" who are controlling the port as part of an incredibly lucrative enterprise involving theft of oil. Maliki claims that this is not directed at Sadr, yet from the reaction by the Sadrists, there can be little doubt that they form the bulk of the "criminal elements" in Basra and that their major source of funds is now threatened.

This conflict was inevitable. Sadr, alligned with Iran and studying to become an ayatollah based on the Iranian school that requires clerical rule, has been an intensely destabilizing force in Iraq despite his recently declared cease-fires. It has long appeared that Iran wanted to see the Mehdi militia turned into a Hezbollah type of operation with Sadr at its head and loyal to Iran. See here and here. Following the British withdrawal from Basra, the Iranians, working through their Sadr proxies, have been attempting to take control of Basra through a combination of assassinations and intimidation. If there is ever to be a functioning democracy in Iraq, Sadr and his militia must be disarmed, or barring that, destroyed.

And now it has begun. PM Maliki's offensive to retake Basra has lit a larger revolt by Sadrists in Baghdad and throughout cities in the south of Iraq. Sadr himself is calling for a negotiated settlement - something the Iraqi government should not even consider. This from Bill Rogio:

The cease-fire extension issued by Muqtada al Sadr, the leader of the Iranian-backed Mahdi Army, appears to be in jeopardy after the Iraqi government has launched an offensive against the Shia terror group in the southern city of Basrah. Dubbed Operation Knights' Assault, Iraqi security forces have gone on the offensive to wrest control of the strategic oil hub and Iraq's second largest city from Mahdi Army control. The fighting has spread to Baghdad and the southern provinces.

Knights' Assault is an Iraqi-led operation and was ordered directly by Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, who is in Basrah to direct the operation along with Interior Minister Jawad Bolani. Basrah has seen an uptick in Iranian-backed terror activity since the British withdrew from the city late last year. Political assassinations and intimidation campaigns have been on the rise as the Iranians work to extend their influence in the oil-rich city.

At least 18 Iraqis were killed, including three policemen, and more than 100 were wounded in fighting in the southern city on Tuesday, as Iraqi troops advance to clear neighborhoods controlled by the Mahdi Army. Fighting is reported to have broken out in Baghdad and Al Kut in Wasit province. Curfews have been imposed in Karbala, Wasit, Babil, Diwaniyah, Nasiriyah, and Basrah after fighting between the Mahdi Army and Iraqi security forces broke out in the South.

The Sadrist Bloc, the political arm of the Mahdi Army, has boycotted Parliament and called for general strike and civil disobedience. Muqtada al Sadr has not officially withdrawn from the self-imposed cease-fire.

Mahdi Army forces have also launched mortar and rocket attacks at US and Iraqi bases in Baghdad. On March 25, twelve mortar and rocket strikes were launched at the International Zone, Forward Operating Base Falcon, Forward Operating Base Rustamiyah, and Joint Security Stations Thawra 1 and SUJ. The attacks were launched from Sadr City, a Mahdi Army stronghold in Baghdad. On March 23, 15 civilians were killed during mortar and rocket attacks aimed at the sprawling Coalition military complex southern Baghdad.

US troops are acting in a support role in Basrah and the south, several US military officers told The Long War Journal. The US is providing intelligence, combat support, and air assets to back Iraqi security forces in Basrah and along the Iranian border.

US forces are also actively hunting the Mahdi Army cells in Baghdad conducting the mortar and rocket attacks. Coalition and Iraqi Army forces detained 11 Special Groups operatives believed to be behind a mortar attack on FOB Falcon.

The current Iraqi offensive has been in the works for some time. The Iraqi Army and police have been massing forces in the South since August 2007, . . .

The clashes with the Mahdi Army come just weeks after Muqtada al Sadr admitted failure in Iraq. "So far I did not succeed either to liberate Iraq or make it an Islamic society — whether because of my own inability or the inability of society, only God knows," Sadr wrote to his followers. "The continued presence of the occupiers, on the one hand, and the disobedience of many on the other, pushed me to isolate myself in protest. I gave society a big proportion of my life. Even my body became weaker, I got more sicknesses." . . .

Read the entire article here. Update: You can find Michael Yon's take on the hostilities in Basra and the Iranian connection in an MP3 interview with Instapundit here.

Sadr has called for a negotiated end to the offensive, an offer Maliki has refused, stating "We entered this battle with determination and we will continue to the end. No retreat. No talks. No negotiations." As reported by Reuters, Sadrists have, in addition to engaging in general hositilities in several areas, kidnapped an Iraqi government spokesman and bombed an oil pipeline.

The New York Times and the Washington Post are both spinning their reporting on this, though the latter is the worst. The NYT reports, U.S. forces have flown reconnisance over Basra and have engaged in a bombing run. As the NYT frames this, the U.S. has been "drawn into" the fight in Basra, as opposed to this being how regular operations are envisioned as Iraqi forces stand-up. If things are working as planned, than offensives such as what is occurring in Basra would have Iraqi forces in the lead, supported as necessary by U.S. forces, and especially U.S. air power, a combat multiplier that the Iraqi military cannot yet field.

The Washington Post reporting, which you can find here, is outrageous, spinning off into the arena of supposition, conspiracy theory and anti-American propaganda:

Maliki decided to launch the offensive without consulting his U.S. allies, according to administration officials. With little U.S. presence in the south, and British forces in Basra confined to an air base outside the city, one administration official said that "we can't quite decipher" what is going on. It's a question, he said, of "who's got the best conspiracy" theory about why Maliki decided to act now.

The WP seems to think this offensive came out of thin air. They ignore both the build-up of Iraqi forces, as reported by the LWJ, and the acts that have made the offensive necessary - i.e., the withdrawal of British forces, the increased Iranian inspired violence in Basra by the Mahdi Army, and the fact that the government of Iraq has the right, responsibility and duty to control their sole major port. The WP seems to be deligitimizing the offensive, portraying it as some sort of corrupt political maneuver against innocent Sadrists. To continue:

In Basra, three rival Shiite groups have been trying to position themselves, sometimes through force of arms, to dominate recently approved provincial elections.

The U.S. officials, who were not authorized to speak on the record, said that they believe Iran has provided assistance in the past to all three groups: the Mahdi Army; the Badr Organization of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, Iraq's largest Shiite party; and forces loyal to the Fadhila Party, which holds the Basra governor's seat. But the officials see the current conflict as a purely internal Iraqi dispute.

Some officials have concluded that Maliki himself is firing "the first salvo in upcoming elections," the administration official said.

"His dog in that fight is that he is basically allied with the Badr Corps" against forces loyal to Sadr, the official said. "It's not a pretty picture."

I have no idea who the WP is getting its quotes from, but they are problematic. One, the jump in violence in Basra is primarilly related to the Mahdi army. Two, this government offensive is aimed at "all criminal elements" and to demilitarize the city, meaning it will target elements beyond Sadr's militia. Three, to the extent these other oraganizations are not engaging in assassination, theft and intimidation - and I have seen no reports indicating that the ISCI or Fadhila are doing so as part of regular ongoing operations - then Maliki should be aligned with them. They are part of the democratic process. Four, and perhaps the most galling of this incredibly poor WP report, is that it ignores the fundamental truth that the Iraqi government can, should and must have control of its ports and cities, as well as control Iraq's primary public resource, oil. There is nothing dubious about this offensive. To the contrary, it is absolutely necessary if the government is to ever function.

And the WP is far from done. To continue:

. . . Several Mahdi Army commanders said they had been fighting U.S. forces for the past three days in Sadr City, engaging Humvees as well as the Strykers. By their account, an Iraqi special forces unit had entered Sadr City from another direction, backed by Americans, but otherwise the fighting had not been with Iraqis.

"If there were no Americans, there would be no fighting," said Abu Mustafa al-Thahabi, 38, a senior Mahdi Army member.

The WP repeats that quote and leaves it hanging with no rebuttal - suggesting that the violence in Iraq is solely a function of the U.S. presence. What pure bull.

Sadrists are rising up throughout Iraq and most of the violence is not directed at the U.S. It just so happens that near Sadr City, there are American targets. Further, as a practical matter, this report wholly ignores Iranian involvement in the violence and their efforts to dominate Shia Iraq through the Mahdi Army. And lastly, as a practical matter, leaving this quote hanging implies that having an unsanctioned militia in Iraq whose loyalty is to Sadr, if not directly to Iran, rather than to the Iraqi government is perfectly acceptable. In what world does that make any sense? In essence, what the WP is doing is reporting enemy propoganda unchallenged.

It is one thing to be anti-American, another entirely to be pro-enemy. The WP crosses both lines with its reporting today.

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Al Qaeda, Current Ops in Iraq, & Security In Baghdad

The map above shows in dark red the remaining areas where al Qaeda is still active in Iraq. The light areas indicate transit routes. This today from the Long War Journal:

Nearly one year to the day of the announcement of the "surge" of US forces to Iraq and the change in counterinsurgency plan, Iraqi and Coalition forces have shrunk al Qaeda's ability to conduct operations inside Iraq, a senior US commander said.

During a press briefing in Baghdad, Lieutenant General Ray Odierno, the Commander of Multinational Corps Iraq, said al Qaeda in Iraq has been ejected from its strongholds in the cities to the rural regions of Iraq.

From late 2006 into 2007, "Iraq was caught in a cycle of bloodshed under the dark cloud of al Qaeda," said Odierno. Al Qaeda was "entrenched in numerous urban safe havens across Iraq" until the surge forces launched Operation Phantom Thunder in June 2007.

Al Qaeda in Iraq's network has been significantly degraded, but is still a threat. Al Qaeda remains active in regions near Miqdadiyah, Mosul, Hawijah, Samarra, and southeast of Baghdad in the Arab Jabour region. "Although the group remains a dangerous threat, its capabilities have been diminished," said Odierno. "Al Qaeda has been pushed out of urban centers like Baghdad, Ramadi, Fallujah and Baqubah, and forced into isolated rural areas. Many of their top leaders have been eliminated, and finding qualified replacements is increasingly difficult for them." Multinational Forces Iraq also estimates it has significantly degraded al Qaeda's ability to fund operations by dismantling its financier networks and leaders.

Operation Phantom Phoenix, the current nationwide operation targeting al Qaeda's remaining safe havens, was launched on Jan. 8. Iraqi and US forces have captured or killed 121 al Qaeda fighters, wounded 14, and detained an additional 1023 suspects. Al Qaeda's leadership has been hit hard during the operation, with 92 high values targets either killed or captured.

Iraqi and US forces have also discovered 351 weapons caches and four tunnel complexes, Odierno said. Iraqi and US forces have also discovered three car bomb and improvised explosive device [IED] factories and 410 IEDs, including 18 car bombs and 25 homes rigged with explosives. Also found were "numerous torture chambers, an underground medical clinic, several closed schools, and a large foreign fighter camp with intricate tunnel complexes," said Odierno. . .

Read the entire post here. The USA Today uses its front page today to highlight the dramatic security gains in Iraq made with the counterinsurgency strategy:

About 75% of Baghdad's neighborhoods are now secure, a dramatic increase from 8% a year ago when President Bush ordered more troops to the capital, U.S. military figures show.

The military classifies 356 of Baghdad's 474 neighborhoods in the "control" or "retain" category of its four-tier security rating system, meaning enemy activity in those areas has been mostly eliminated and normal economic activity is resuming.

The data given by the military to USA TODAY provide one of the clearest snapshots yet of how security has improved in Baghdad since roughly 30,000 additional American troops arrived in Iraq last year.

U.S. commanders caution that the gains are still fragile, but at the moment U.S. and Iraqi forces "basically own the streets," said Col. Ricky Gibbs, a brigade commander in southern Baghdad.

The fight to control Baghdad is the centerpiece of the counterinsurgency strategy launched a year ago by Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq. The plan, popularly known as the "surge," seeks to reduce sectarian and other violence by moving troops off large bases and into dangerous neighborhoods to protect civilians.

The 310 neighborhoods in the "control" category are secure, but depend on U.S. and Iraqi military forces to maintain the peace. The 46 areas in the "retain" category have reached a level where Iraqi police and security forces can maintain order, a more permanent fix. The remaining areas have fewer security forces based there, though they are not necessarily violent.

In February 2007, when additional U.S. forces began arriving, only 37 Baghdad neighborhoods were in the "control" and "retain" categories.

The drop in violence in Baghdad and elsewhere helped avert a religious civil war, said Thomas Hammes, a retired Marine colonel and author.

. . . The U.S. military is wary of handing over security responsibility too quickly to Iraqi forces. "There are concerns we'll pull out of here too fast just because we have such great gains," Gibbs said by phone from Iraq.

. . . Although weakened and pushed out of Iraq's major cities, al-Qaeda remains focused on trying to dominate the capital, Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the No. 2 U.S. commander in Iraq, said Thursday. "Their long-term sights are still set on Baghdad," he said.

Read the entire article here.

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Interesting News - 14 January 2008

This is hilarious. All the reasons to vote for Fred, Part II


(H/T Blogs of War)

Normalcy returns to Baghdad, block by block.

Do read this eloquent posting from the Covenant Zone on the Danish Cartoons, the prosecution of Ezra Levant, and the left’s defining cult of victimhood ascendant in Canada today.

Read this superb roundup on the situation in Pakistan from Dinah Lord. And do see this on the plot to blow up the Eiffel Tower.

From the Int’l Herald Tribune: "Former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi received an Islamist death threat Friday in a letter containing two bullets that was sent to a newspaper owned by his family's media empire. . . In September 2001, when Berlusconi was prime minister, he inflamed the Muslim world and angered Western diplomats by stating that Western civilization was "superior" to that of Islam." Just as a curious aside, why would Berlusconi’s statement anger Western diplomats? If they think Islamic culture superior, they should adopt it. (H/T MK’s Views Down Under)

The Velvet Hammer takes note of Hillary playing the . . . Osama card?

At Gates of Vienna, a response to the taqiyah of main stream British Islamist and grandson of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Tariq Ramadan.

See Dr. Sanity for her incisive thoughts on capitalism.

And on a related note, see the Glittering Eye for a review of the blunders of those who are supposed to be watching and assessing capitalism for us.

Soccer Dad has a great analysis Shibley Telhami’s editorial in today’s paper about the driving motivation of Arab regimes today.

American Digest has a great roundup of "Science Made Stupid"

Britney Spears to go burkha? Apparently so. According to the Jawa Report, Britney Spears, currently involved in a relationship with a British Sunni Muslim, "will be converting to Islam, thus ending all doubt that she belongs in a mental institution."

And lastly, from the Shield of Achilles: The photo [below] is Mayor Carmen Kontur-Gronquist, from Arlington, Oregon, a short time before she took office. The photo . . . upset some people in the town enough to demand her resignation. Holy cow, people need to get a life: 1) The photos were taken before her job as Mayor, and have nothing to do with her job; 2) These aren't nude photos anyway (you can see the same amount of skin at the beach), and 3) she looks great! You don't see too many town mayors with that kind of muscle tone and flat stomach. Wow! She should be proud. It's actually the kind of example in physical fitness that America needs more of, not less.

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From Iraq, A Christmas That Carries With It Hope

This message today from Rev Canon Andrew Whit, the Anglican Priest for Iraq, from his Church in Baghdad:

Yesterday, after I left my prefabricated hut in Baghdad's heavily fortified International Zone and made the journey of just one mile to St George's, the city's Anglican Church, I was greeted by more than 150 excited children.

"Abouna, Abouna," they cried, using the Arabic word for "Father". "This year we are going to have the best Christmas ever!"

I have to be escorted to my church by Iraqi Special Forces in armoured cars. As I took off my bulletproof clothes, I thought about the children's optimism.

St George's is still surrounded by razor wire and barricades to deflect bomb blasts. We cannot walk Baghdad's streets safely as we could in the days of Saddam and my parishioners tell me terrible stories of death and destruction, almost daily.

But the children are right. There is a sense in the air that things are slowly changing and this Christmas, for the first time in many years, will be a time of hope.

Last Christmas it was far too dangerous for us to hold our services in our church. We met, instead, in the prime minister's office. It may sound grand but for most of the time we had no electricity.

We managed to enjoy ourselves thanks, in part, to a pile of presents donated by an American church and brought to us by the US military.

. . . Life for everyone in Baghdad has been unbelievably difficult over the past five years. But now there are real signs of hope. I know things are changing for the better because my Iraqi congregation tells me so.

The most noticeable improvements are with the electricity supply and security. In summer, Baghdad got perhaps half an hour's electricity a day. Now it gets up to eight hours' supply.

And while this is still a deadly city, fewer people are being killed. The gunfire and explosions in the streets are lessening, as is the intimidation of my congregation.

We have streetlights for the first time in ages, which makes things seem safer and more normal.

With every corner shop that reopens for business, with every cafe-owner who serves coffee again, it is possible for us to start thinking positively once more.
And, at last, we are back in our church and we are looking forward to Christmas. My congregation is quite remarkable.

About 1,000 people come to our church – a fairly typical example of Thirties Church of England architecture set in a dusty Baghdad street.

None is an Anglican. They nominally belong to every possible denomination in Iraq – Syriac Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Presbyterian and others – but come to our church because they live nearby and it is too dangerous to travel.

. . . Last week we were able to hold a Christmas bazaar and it was a huge success. These are not normally part of an Iraqi Christmas, but all the women in our church now belong to the Mothers' Union and have learned of such events from the British-based organisation.

It was a small but significant step back to normality for a city where life continues to be, in so many ways, grim.

A visitor to the bazaar asked where all the men were. We have only six in our congregation. I responded in a matter-of-fact way: "Oh, most of them have been killed." I wasn't being blasé.

. . . [Christmas] is a time when they can celebrate life in all its fullness. It is about simple hope for the future.

There is much more. Read the article here.

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Winning the War in Iraq

This from an interview with General Petraeus by Geraldo Rivera, discussing the success of the surge in Iraq:

GERALDO RIVERA: What was the key? I remember your very contentious report in front of Congress. There was very great skepticism about the surge. Too little, too late was the predominant criticism. What do you think was the tipping point?

GEN PETRAEUS: There have been a number of factors... The popular rejection of Al-Qaeda in Anbar was a catalyst. It gave other Iraqis an example of the fact that they could also reject this extremist form of Islam that is not Iraqi in all the violence... There is a momentum and the momemtum starts to have a positive effect.

GERALDO RIVERA: Your commanders though are suggesting that if they have not already won, they are winning the battle of Baghdad.

GEN PETRAEUS: There is no question that there has been impressive and enormous progress made in Baghdad by levels in attack, by civilian deaths, by coalition Iraqi security force casualties, you name it. There has been approvement... I would not have recommended what I did in September, if I would not have projected what we are now seeing in Iraq...

GERALDO RIVERA: You are almost acting as the only true national leader in Iraq today.

GEN PETRAEUS: This is a team effort. This is the new greatest generation of American soldier, sailor, air force, marines, coast guard and we have civilians that are out here in huge numbers as well... Our country should be very proud on the way our services have changed during the course of this.

Gateway Pundit has more plus video.

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A Real Iraqi Benchmark

It's axiomatic that if you want to know the true morale of a military unit, you ask the private. So hats off today to the Washington Post for doing essentially that in attempting to gauge how Iraqis themselves feel about the security situation in their county. WaPo asked Baghdad's cab drivers:

Haider Abbas, a 36-year-old taxi driver, had only a few moments to answer what is often a life-or-death question in this city: Would he drive a passenger home?

The home, on that scorching afternoon last month, happened to be in Adhamiyah, a notoriously dangerous neighborhood where several cabbies had been gunned down. Abbas hadn't been there in two years. But the fare pleaded that it had become safer, so the cabbie reluctantly agreed to go.

"To tell you the truth, I thought I had just traded my life for 5,000 dinars," or $4, said Abbas, who was shocked when he arrived in the traffic-jammed streets of Adhamiyah to see shops open and people strolling in the road. "Then I suddenly realized that security really is returning to Baghdad."

In a city where few residents believe official statements on declining violence, whether from the U.S. military or the Iraqi government, some of the most reliable figures on security improvements can be found on the odometers of Baghdad's taxi drivers.

After years of sectarian warfare whittled down the list of neighborhoods where they could safely work, cabbies are once again crisscrossing nearly all of Baghdad. Every day they assess the constantly shifting boundaries between danger and security, hoping that life will return to normal, but mindful that this is still a city where anyone could be killed at any moment for no particular reason.

. . . According to interviews with a dozen cabbies across the city, however, the mood now is far more hopeful than at any point since the February 2006 bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra, which plunged the country to the brink of civil war.

Abu Ahmed, 32, who lives just outside the fortresslike Green Zone, said that after the attack on the Shiite shrine, about 65 miles north of Baghdad, he could no longer drive on roads leading out of the capital. Even within the city, he said, it would have been suicide to travel to neighborhoods such as Ghazaliyah, Sholeh and Amiriyah.

"If you took a passenger to those areas," he said, "there was a good chance you would never come back."

Today, Abu Ahmed said, he takes passengers to any neighborhood in the city and any region of the country except for volatile Diyala province. "But I never go onto the side streets in the dangerous neighborhoods -- just the main roads," he said. "And sometimes I still have fear in my heart."

The office of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki says the number of attacks in Baghdad has plummeted from 1,442 in April to 323 last month. But instead of official pronouncements, the cabbies rely more on friends, family members, fellow drivers and what some consider a sort of innate intuition about the roads.

"We call the taxi driver in Iraq a roving reporter," said Haider Abbas, the driver who was surprised by the bustle in Adhamiyah. "We know every single neighborhood, and we can read the minds and hearts of the people who hire us."

. . . Cabbies gripe that the improved security situation also makes it harder to eke out a living. A growing number of Baghdad residents now feel comfortable driving their own cars around the city, obviating the need for taxis. The skyrocketing cost of fuel has made it harder to make ends meet. And high unemployment has led many young men to plop a yellow "TAXI" sign atop their vehicles, adding to the competition for passengers.

For taxi drivers who used to take passengers from Baghdad to Syria, the increased sense of security -- combined with strict new visa rules in Syria -- has stopped the exodus to the border, ending their source of income. . . .

Read the entire story.

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Bomb at a Baghdad Market Had Iranian Fingerprints

The NYT reported yesterday on a bomb at Ghazil animal market in Baghdad that killed 13 and wounded scores more. This certainly seemed like an attack by al Qaeda in Iraq . . . except that it was not. And also unlike so many previous attacks, intelligence tips led to the quick capture of the people who were responsible in a series of raids conducted by the U.S. military. This from the AP:

[T]he bomb was packed with ball bearings to maximize casualties and that it bore the hallmarks of a so-called special group, the military term for Shiite extremists who have broken with radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The cleric called on his fighters to stand down in August.

"In raids overnight, Iraqi and coalition forces were able to identify and detain four members of a militia extremist group we assess as responsible for this horrific act of indiscriminate violence," Smith said. "Based on subsequent confessions, forensics and other intelligence, the bombing was the work of an Iranian-backed special groups cell operating here in Baghdad."

The allegation came despite recent statements from U.S. commanders expressing cautious optimism about a decline in Shiite violence along with claims that Iran has begun limiting its support of Shiite extremists.

Tehran denies charges it is fomenting violence in Iraq, saying it is trying to help stabilize its fellow predominantly Shiite neighbor.

Smith stressed he was not blaming Iran for Friday's bombing, saying it remained to be seen if Tehran was honoring a pledge to halt the flow of weapons into Iraq. U.S. military commanders have said they continue to find Iranian munitions in Iraq but cannot be sure if they have been recently sent or leftover from previous shipments.

"I'm not saying that yesterday Iran ordered the bombing of the pet market," Smith said. But, he said, the attack had the "fingerprints" of a group that had been trained, equipped and facilitated through Iranian connections. . . .

Read the article here. Iran trains and funds these groups. And while they may not direct a particular act, they fund the groups on the amount of death and destruction they sow. I do not understand why the U.S. military is soft peddaling the role the sociopaths of the Khomeinist theocracy are playing in Iraq. Clearly Iraq's Shia population seems to recognize it.

(AP Photo/Karim Kadim

(H/T Powerline)

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A Symbolic Milestone in Baghdad

Michael Yon's iconic photo from Baghdad of Christians and Muslims placing a cross back on top of a Church in Baghdad




From Instapundit (with many updates):

Michael Yon emails: "I photographed men and women, both Christians and Muslims, placing a cross atop the St. John's Church in Baghdad. They had taken the cross from storage and a man washed it before carrying it up to the dome. A Muslim man had invited the American soldiers from 'Chosen' Company 2-12 Cavalry to the church, where I videotaped as Muslims and Christians worked and rejoiced at the reopening of St John's, an occasion all viewed as a sign of hope. The Iraqis asked me to convey a message of thanks to the American people. 'Thank you, thank you,' the people were saying. One man said, 'Thank you for peace.' Another man, a Muslim, said 'All the people, all the people in Iraq, Muslim and Christian, is brother.' The men and women were holding bells, and for the first time in memory freedom rang over the ravaged land between two rivers. (Videotape to follow.)"

This certainly marks a hopeful milestone along the long road to success in Iraq and a gradual return to normalcy.

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