Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Sadr City and Victory



Does the average American know this story? I don't think so.

From the Stars and Stripes:

When Task Force 1-6 took control of the area in early May, they entered a cesspool of violence. For the Baumholder, Germany-based infantrymen, much of the fighting centered around the construction of a three mile security wall that separates Jamilla from Sadr City’s main residential areas to the north.

The wall was constructed in response to the fighting that erupted in March in Sadr City, which functioned as a launching point for mortar assaults on the nearby Green Zone.

The soldiers of 1-6, who were continuing work started by other units assigned to the 3rd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, faced contact with the enemy within 24 hours of being on the job. Encounters with rocket-propelled grenades, sniper fire and mortars were a daily occurrence, commanders said.

But since the wall project was completed more than two weeks ago, firefights has been replaced with intelligence gathering, civic engagement and reconstruction.

Regarding victory, The New York Post has this:

AMERICA has won, or is about to win, the Iraq war.

The latest proof came last month, as the Iraqi army - just a few months ago the target of scorn and abuse from Democratic politicians and journalists - forcefully reoccupied three cities that had served as key insurgency bases (Basra, Sadr City and Mosul).


Sunnis and Shias alike applauded as their nation's army compelled insurgent militias to lay down their arms.

.......

In a Washington Post interview, CIA Director Michael Hayden said we're witnessing the "near strategic defeat of al Qaeda in Iraq."

I think we are all going to get what we want sooner, rather than later...an end to this war. But we on the right (and America) get the icing on the cake.

Victory.

via Mudville