Iraq update August 21, 2007

Well, first off, another Democrat has just returned from Iraq. Carl Levin says the "surge" is showing measurable signs of success. We need to pack up and come home though. The reason?

Drum roll...........

The political progress by the Iraqi government is too slow. They are failing miserably, according to Levin, and we need to stop providing security to the Iraqi people. Considering that Levin is part of the worst Congress our country has had in over 200 years...

...THAT qualifies this as expert testimony, in my humble view.

Hillary Rotten Clinton says the surge is working and we need to "reward our soldiers by bringing them home". So, their reward for doing such a great job in 2007 would be for her to give Al Qaeda back everything our soldiers have bled and died for this year. Thank god she's only in Congress. Imagine the damage she could do as Commander in Chief.

Don't forget your daily Uncle Jimbo fix via Black Five. Today, it's called The Surge is working- So let's Cut & Run. I believe it has to do with the Democrats, but it's so hard to tell with his posts.

• STFU both of you clowns with a grand total of zero relevant experience. I don't play chickenhawk, but there comes a time when the mendacious drivel spouted by these two completely political animals disgusts me beyond reprieve. OK now their story changes from we have lost the war, to Well the war may be going well but the political situation is screwed. The most grotesque irony is that both are criticizing the Iraqi Parliament for not being in session 24/7 while our two members of the Senate and our entire Parliament of Hoors are on vacation as well.

Michael J. Totten has a new post up call How to Spy in Iraq.

• BAGHDAD – American soldiers arrived in Iraq in 2003 with not much of a plan and little idea what to expect. The Iraqi government, military, and police were overthrown and disbanded under de-Baathification. Most Iraqis who knew how to run the country were either sent home or imprisoned. Americans were in charge of just about everything even though they had no experience running even their own country let alone a traumatized and suspicious Arab society. They were confounded by its exotic and dysfunctional ways. When Sunni and Shia militias launched wars against each other and against the Americans, confusion turned to bewilderment.

The Democrats like to tell you that Bush has alienated the whole world and we have all this "fence mending" that needs to be done. They never acknowledge the fact that, we are gaining respect more and more everyday because of what Bush has done. Germany and France have elected pro-American governments and now France is even pushing to get in and help us. From the New York Post online we have FRANCE'S PRO-U.S. TURN ON IRAQ.

• August 21, 2007 -- ONE key promise that Nicolas Sarkozy had made during his presidential election campaign last spring was to "correct foreign-policy mistakes" made by his predecessor Jacques Chirac.

  Chief among these was Chirac's desperate efforts to prevent Iraq's liberation from Saddam Hussein's regime of terror. Chirac failed to save his friend's regime but managed to sour relations with the United States, Great Britain and more than 40 other democracies that joined the Coalition of the Willing to liberate Iraq in 2003.

  Sarkozy's moves to correct the mistake started before his election, when he met President Bush at the White House in 2006 and described Chirac's policy as "arrogant."

Vets for Freedom, in their troop blog section has a great read called From the front lines in Fallujah. This link is to part 2, but in the beginning they link you to part 1 so you can get the whole email. It's from Marine Sam B.

• Hey everyone. The peak of summer has come and gone, and we're all relishing in the relative reprieve of 110 degree temperatures – down from late July's brutal mid-120s. My platoon has been very busy supporting "precincting" operations in Fallujah, much like the one I mentioned in my previous email. We have now completed seven such operations, all carried out without major incident, and the results speak for themselves. Suicide bombings and IEDs are at the lowest levels since the initial Fallujah offensive in 2004. We have hired and trained some 1400 local Fallujans as neighborhood watch-standers, of whom several hundred (and more in the weeks to come) will become full-fledged Iraqi Police. The police and Iraqi Army, despite the sectarian differences in their membership, have cooperated effectively in the city, sharing intelligence and working together during combined operations to deny insurgents the ability to carry out effective attacks.