Michael Yon update

From email:

Greetings:

I am back in Iraq, currently in South Baghdad on FOB Falcon with 1-4Cav. This battalion is doing so well with counterinsurgency that it has not been attacked a single time since 9 September 2007. Their area was one of the worst in all Iraq before they got here.

Men of Valor Part VII (from my time with British troops in late 2007) is published.

My book "Moment of Truth in Iraq" is a work in progress; information about ordering advance (signed) copies is available here: Moment of Truth in Iraq.

There is not enough time to write long dispatches while the book is still in progress; I plan to run a lot of missions during February. But I will try to publish short dispatches nearly daily through February. I will not send an email with each new dispatch, so please check the site frequently.

There likely will continue to be an increase in US casualties as a result of the fact that Iraqi and American forces have their teeth sunk deeply into al Qaeda in northern Iraq. Iraqi and American forces are crushing the wind out of al Qaeda, but the enemy still has strength and is fighting hard.

V/r,

Michael
Baghdad

Short post pointing to a long read

Another good summary of where we are in Iraq by Max Boot at The Weekly Standard is We Are Winning. We Haven't Won.

• Baghdad
  Nine months ago, when I was last in Iraq, the conventional wisdom about the war effort was unduly pessimistic. Many politicians, and not only Democrats, had declared the surge a failure when it had barely begun. Today we know that the surge has succeeded: Iraqi and American deaths fell by approximately 80 percent between December 2006 and December 2007, and life is returning to a semblance of normality in much of Baghdad. Now the danger is that public opinion may be turning too optimistic.

Air strike in Pakistan

From what I understand, we struck inside Pakistan from Afghanistan on Tuesday and took out a top Al Qaeda operative. If it really was us, then the silence from the world is interesting. Sending more troops and equipment to Afghanistan might allow us to "sneak" in and really start taking apart Al Qaeda in their safe havens.

Bill Roggio has a couple of posts up in regards to the air strikes.


Arab, Asian al Qaeda operatives reported killed in North Waziristan raid

• The Jan. 29 airstrike against a Taliban safe house in Pakistan's North Waziristan may have targeted two senior al Qaeda leaders, the Pakistani press is reporting.

Senior al Qaeda leader Abu Laith al Libi killed in North Waziristan

• The fallout from the Jan. 29 airstrike is settling, and it appears a senior al Qaeda leader was killed in the attack in North Waziristan, Pakistan. Abu Laith al Libi was killed in the attack, according to a posting at a prominent jihadi website.

Gaddafi's kid

You might have seen it splashed across the news websites last week that Moammar Gaddafi's son is accused of sending in the foreign fighters responsible for last weeks devastating explosion in northern Iraq. Omar over at Iraq The Model has his viewpoint up with Al-Qaeda's in Iraq New Sponsor: Libya.

• After Iran, Syria and others it's now Libya's turn to sponsor terrorism in Iraq.
  The news popped up for a second then it vanished; Gaddafi's son is accused by senior awakening officials in Anbar of funding and sending a group of foreign terrorists to Iraq. This particular group, awakening leaders believe, was responsible for the explosives cache that caused the devastating explosion in Mosul last week.

What comes next in Iraq

Right now there's the ongoing battle for Mosul. Bill Roggio has the latest on The Mosul Offensive

• Just over one year after the surge officially began Coalition and Iraqi forces continue to pursue al Qaeda in Iraq. After al Qaeda has been driven from its havens in Baghdad and the surrounding belts regions, and most recently in Diyala, the city of Mosul has emerged as the latest battleground.

Looking down the road would help, especially to help us determine what effect if any it will have on the elections. David Ignatius at The Washington Post has a good longer term look with his The Next Iraq Phase

• BAGHDAD -- America's future role in Iraq is being shaped by two discussions underway here and in Washington. One is a Bush administration debate about the timetable for reducing U.S. troops this year, and the other is a U.S.-Iraqi negotiation about the status of the residual American force that will remain after 2008.

The new tree feeder

I didn't blog last night because I was out purchasing a new tree feeder. Check it out!

Michael J. Totten

He has a new one up worth reading called The Final Mission, Part I

• FALLUJAH – At the end of 2006 there were 3,000 Marines in Fallujah. Despite what you might expect during a surge of troops to Iraq, that number has been reduced by 90 percent. All Iraqi Army soldiers have likewise redeployed from the city. A skeleton crew of a mere 250 Marines is all that remains as the United States wraps up its final mission in what was once Iraq's most violent city.