From the editorial page of the Washington Post today: The Iraqi Upturn.

THERE’S BEEN a relative lull in news coverage and debate about Iraq in recent weeks — which is odd, because May could turn out to have been one of the most important months of the war. While Washington’s attention has been fixed elsewhere, military analysts have watched with astonishment as the Iraqi government and army have gained control for the first time of the port city of Basra and the sprawling Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City, routing the Shiite militias that have ruled them for years and sending key militants scurrying to Iran. At the same time, Iraqi and U.S. forces have pushed forward with a long-promised offensive in Mosul, the last urban refuge of al-Qaeda. So many of its leaders have now been captured or killed that U.S. Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker, renowned for his cautious assessments, said that the terrorists have “never been closer to defeat than they are now.”

The good news from Iraq has not been as hard to find in politically conservative outlets. One example here from Jay Nordlinger today (thanks to Mike for the link): Bread returns to Mosul. He quotes from this AFP wire report:

Frightened residents deserted the park in north Mosul after radical Al-Qaeda militants imposed their extremist view of Islam on the city.

But since the local campaign against Al-Qaeda began residents have been returning in force to celebrate weddings in the park, especially at weekends.

Guests gather there both to congratulate the newlyweds and to pose for pictures with the couple.

“The extremist factions imposed their values on us with rhetoric and fatwas (decrees) that have nothing to do with real Islam,” said Taha.

Coffee shops and restaurants, as well as other favourite meeting spots like the corniche overlooking the Tigris River in downtown Mosul, have also buzzed with activity since the anti-Al Qaeda operation got under way.

All across the city, residents have taken on a new lease on life.

Streets are thronged with pedestrians and market stalls brim anew with fruit and vegetables — including tomatoes and cucumbers displayed side by side in clear defiance to the Islamists who had banned this as sexually provocative.

And there is this piece by Matthew Continetti in the Weekly Standard, summarizing the substantial fruits being borne by counter-jihadist operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and around the world.

Some of this is clearly due to the toxic nature of the terrorists themselves, and the fact that all they have to offer local populations is misery and oppression. But even more fundamentally, I think, what is being seen is that success breeds success, and the al-Qaeda brand is not one now associated with success. The old strong horse/weak horse equation of Osama Bin Laden’s applies, as it always does in human conflict. And the credit for the success has to go most of all in the end to the American troops in the field who have maintained their morale while others sitting far away in safety and comfort have so easily lost theirs. Those countless day to day, small and large acts of bravery, of perseverance and of endurance are what have paid off. It is precisely this persistence and courage which the jihadists have counted on Americans not possessing. Those on the home front may have faltered, and may still be faltering to a significant degree, but the troops have been doing their job — and other people’s jobs — and succeeding to an extent no one had a good right to expect. Whether killing terrorists, training local forces or bringing aid to ordinary people, it is the excellence and fortitude of those troops that has bred and fostered the domino-like successes we’ve been seeing lately in the broader war. Their sacrifices have earned gratitude beyond what can be expressed, but that’s no reason not to try.

...................
Share this!

Posts which might be related to this one based on a mysterious algorithm:

• The dogged days of summer 2007
• Merry Christmas from al-Zawahiri to the Democratic party
• Ask and you shall receive