Our Fifth Column Fourth Estate, Once Again

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2007/05/21/2007-05-21_you_bet_we_can_win.html

You bet we can win

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BY FREDERICK KAGAN

Monday, May 21st 2007, 4:00 AM

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Iraq is the central front in the war against Al Qaeda. And we are beginning to win. These are not talking points. They are facts on the ground, as I saw during my recent trips there.

Though you may be getting the opposite impression from news reports, the sectarian violence that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had unleashed by destroying the Samarra Mosque in February 2006 has subsided. Measured weekly, sectarian killings are down by almost two-thirds since the start of the Baghdad security plan. Anbar Province, Al Qaeda’s former sanctuary in western Iraq, has turned against the terrorists. Anbaris by the thousands are signing up to fight against Al Qaeda. Violent attacks in the province are down by 50% and combined casualties down by 65% between early January and mid-May.

The movement is spreading. Sheiks in Diyala, Salah-ad-Din and Babil provinces are reaching out to coalition forces to help us.

This is not the moment to consider withdrawal time lines that would snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, as the U.S. Congress seems determined to do. It is the time to redouble our efforts.

It is true that the overall level of violence in Iraq remains high, and American soldiers are still dying. Scores of terrorists flow into Iraq every month, detonating suicide car bombs against civilians, Iraqi security forces and American troops. This is the core of the security problem faced by our troops and by innocent Iraqis.

But looking at these casualty numbers alone distorts reality. Security is improving across Baghdad, even in traditionally bad areas. In early May, I walked and drove through these neighborhoods. Haifa St., scene of day-long gunfights between Al Qaeda terrorists and coalition forces in January, is calm and starting to revive. Its market is open and flourishing.

Even in Baghdad’s Dora neighborhood, some of which remains very dangerous, the market now has more than 200 shops – up from zero in February. Across the city, Iraqis are reaching out to coalition and Iraqi troops with tips and requests for help.

In some areas, that help takes the form of attacking the enemy and responding to enemy counterattacks. But as we kill and capture these evil people, we create safety in our wake. We are not standing between warring communities. We stand between terrorists and murderers and their innocent victims, both Sunni and Shia.

It will take time for that safety to take hold. It will take time for our enemies to accept their defeat and stop fighting. Demanding total victory by September is unrealistic. But we are making progress, and by then, I am confident we will be making more.

One thing impressed me above all on my most recent trip, from which I returned on May 13: Ordinary Iraqis have not given up. Sadrists in the parliament may demand our withdrawal, but the government of Iraq has repeatedly asked us to stay. Iraqi soldiers and police are fighting Al Qaeda and Shia militias every day, sacrificing alongside our troops.

One Iraqi commander told me, “Anyone who says the Americans should leave now is not a real Iraqi citizen.”

Growing numbers of Iraqis are joining the struggle against those who want to derail Iraq’s chances for security and stability. We must not let them down, and we must not let ourselves down. This is a fight that we can and must win.

Kagan, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, is author of “Finding The Target: The Transformation of American Military Policy.”

Gunner: Thanks for the Kagan article. Though it’s evident from the statistics Kagan cited that violence is subsiding and political stability returning we all know it won’t make the slightest dent in the Democrat’s rush to surrender.

Al Queda knows that all it has to do is have half a dozen spectacular attacks in September right before Petraeus reports to Congress on progress for every Democrat to run to the nearest microphone and demand an immediate withdrawal.

Looks like the surrender monkeys are going to cave, for now, on Iraq funding.

But all bets are off in September.