Nov 06 2007

More Metrics On Success In Iraq

Published by at 7:34 am under All General Discussions,Iraq

The news media is too quiet. Are they stunned at how wrong they were in predicting defeat in Iraq? Are they going to become the Modern “Tokyo Rose” and spin propaganda for our enemies like the AP did this week in pretending there has not been a significant drop off in violence in Iraq? Is the SurrenderMedia going to destroy its journalistic credentials by ignoring success stories in Iraq because their egoes are to too fragile to admit they were wrong?

Apparently so. In this post from yesterday I listed numerous metrics collected from spatterings of reporting on the Iraq effort. I had to collect them from numerous articles where they were buried amongst a sea of non sequiturs are liberal handwringing. But the compilation of these items provides a clear picture of a major change in Iraq, one that favors US success. Well there are even more metrics out which clearly add to the picture and emphasize the breadth of the changes. First are some stunning numbers on terrorist materials discovered before they killed:

Army Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, deputy to Iraq commander Gen. David Petraeus, gave these totals in a briefing last week for illegal arms, ammunition and explosives recovered in just the last two weeks of October: “Over 37,000 pounds of explosives, a thousand gallons of nitric acid used to make homemade explosives, over 2,000 artillery rounds and over 500 rockets, 136 assembled explosively formed penetrator IEDs (improvised explosive devices), along with 359 copper discs used to make more EFPs, and hundreds of rifles, grenades, anti-tank weapons and suicide vests.” Odierno attributed these arms captures largely to tips from local Iraqi civilians.

The numbers are stunning because the death and destruction this much ordinance and explosive could create. The fact the locals are increasing and expanding their fight against al-Qaeda and turning in Bin Laden’s thugs is also telling. But to see the change one year made (especially in light of the AP propaganda crap I linked to above) note the drop off in violence from a year ago, when events in Iraq were at their bleakest, not just to the last month of the Surge:

Iraqi civilian deaths are down more than 60 percent since their peak last December, from 3,000 that month to just over 700 in October. That’s still too many, of course, but in a nation of 25 million people beset with sectarian violence and terrorism, a two-thirds drop in civilian deaths is a remarkable achievement.

The incidence of mass-casualty terrorist attacks (truck bombs, car bombs and the like) in Iraq’s capital city is down 75 percent in recent months.

The second-ranking surge objective was pacifying Anbar province, formerly the heartland of the Sunni insurgency against U.S. forces and their Iraqi government allies. A year ago, Anbar was suffering more than 300 enemy attacks and hostile incidents per week. The number for the last week of October all across Anbar, Iraq’s largest province, was fewer than 30.

Huge changes. We seem to be past the tipping point as we see major drop offs in indicators such as number of IED attacks:

Eighteen U.S. troops in Iraq were killed by IEDS in October, a greater than 50 percent decline from last October, when 37 U.S. troops in Iraq were killed by IEDs. In total, according to an analysis by Cybercast News Service , there were 31 combat-related U.S. casualties in Iraq during October. That represents a 24 percent decline from September of this year (when there were 41 combat-related casualties) and a 66 percent decline from October of last year (when there were 91 combat-related U.S. casualties). The 18 U.S. casualties in Iraq in October that were caused by IEDs was also a decline from this September, when there were 22 IED-caused casualties.

Again, looking back over the year (37 to 18) verses the last month (22 to 18) gives the full trend, not a one month steady decline. The affects on Iraq is beginning to take hold as Iraqis realize this is not a lull, but a major shift in fighting al-Qaeda:

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has gone on a rare walkabout in central Baghdad in the latest sign of the improving security situation in the war-ravaged Iraqi capital.

During his stroll around the landmark Abu Nuwas street, Maliki inspected newly-renovated gardens and chatted to residents and young soccer players, the premier’s office said on Tuesday.

More than four years of violence has virtually closed the once-bustling street, with its lines of cinema halls, restaurants and shops now standing empty and deserted.

But, with a sharp decline in bloodletting since a “surge” in US troops from mid-February, Baghdad municipal authorities are now reviving Abu Nuwas and have already given the gardens a makeover.

Baghdadis are slowly returning to the gardens and officials say they expect shops to start reopening soon.

During his one-hour visit, Maliki met residents who expressed their grievances, while one mother asked for government aid to assist her son who lost his legs in an explosion.

Locals showered the premier with sweets while he took time out to pose for pictures with children.

“Security has been re-established and we have beaten the terrorists in many areas of Baghdad,” he told those who turned out to greet him. “Life is returning to normal. Terrorism is living its last days.”

The Surrendercrats and SurrenderMedia were abysmally wrong about Iraq and al-Qaeda. Their inability to distingish terrorist fanatics from American forces blinded them to the possibility American allies were the better choice for Iraqis between when faced with the options of western styled democracy or Jackbooted Islamic oppression. They just never even contemplated that al-Qaeda was so vile that the people they inflicted their atrocities on would rise up and tear them apart. Their hate of Bush consumed them and they were wrong.

And they are still wrong.

5 responses so far

5 Responses to “More Metrics On Success In Iraq”

  1. dave m says:

    Anybody remember George Galloway? He was a Scottish
    minister of parliament over in the UK. His most famous lines
    include (to Saddam Hussein) “sir, I priase your indefatagability”,
    to the Arab world in general following the immediate invasion of
    Iraq in 2003, “Where are the Arab Armies?”, and to the British
    troops in that same time period: “Do not obey illegal orders to
    fight this illegal war”.

    He tried to start a political paty, he called it RESPECT. It got one
    member (George himself) elected by standing in a predominatly
    islamic borough in london.

    He also appeared on a show called “celebrity Big Brother” in
    a now famous scene with actress Rula Lenska involving role
    playing as a pussycat (George) and the pet owner (Rula).
    Who can forget the famous line “Do you want me to play the cat?”?

    Nowadays he is a late night talk radio host on a broadcaster
    called “Talk Sport”. He still occaisonally rails against the Bush
    administration, but not so often as before.

    He was once part of the surrender media. Not so much
    a part of it now.

  2. cali_sun says:

    Obey’s remark “the casualties are down in Iraq because soldiers ran out of guys to kill’, is amazing, and disgusting. Such stupidity coming from dems is beyond contempt, and hate.

  3. Soothsayer says:

    How many gallons of Kool-Aid can AJ consume?

    2007 has been the deadliest year to date in terms of coalition casualties. It is premature to extrapolate from the relative quiet of the last two months. Let’s not forget that in August during America’s bloodiest summer in Iraq, the New York Times reported attacks on American-led forces using a lethal type of roadside bomb said to be supplied by Iran reached a new high according to the American military.

    The explosively formed penetrators were used to carry out 99 attacks in July and accounted for a third of the combat deaths suffered by the American-led forces, “July was an all-time high,” Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the No. 2 commander in Iraq, said in an interview, referring to strikes with such devices.

    Such bombs, which fire a semi-molten copper slug that can penetrate the armor on a Humvee and are among the deadliest weapons used against American forces, are used almost exclusively by Shiite militants.

    Those Shia militia were, in fact, members of Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army. In August, al-Sadr announced he and his militia were taking a 6 month hiatus. Casualties could well resume when his Shia fighters come back on-line after the first of the year.

    Further, Pakistan is falling apart and violence is going up in Afghanistan, as insrugents shift their focus.

    In other news, oil reaches $97.00 a barrel, but the rose-colored glasses are still on for George W.

  4. AJStrata says:

    Sooth,

    Your abysmal math skills are at work again. I already posted on lie of averaging over a year verses the results seen after the Surge took hold.

    Follow the AP link and learn more about elementary school math.

    AJStrata

  5. In other news, oil reaches $97.00 a barrel, but the rose-colored glasses are still on for George W.

    Left by Soothsayer on November 6th, 2007

    Blah, Blah, Blah…..

    Yadda, Yadda, Yadda…..

    Waaaannnhhh Wanh Wanh Wanh Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanh!

    More lies, Daily Cus-Omac Talking Points, Misdirection, and utter pap, from Failed Author and Wannabe member of “Academia”, the Anti-American, Pro-Jihadi, Leftist Lying Nutbag Traitor Moonbat, “Bootlicker”.

    It’s not even worth the effort rebutting every single post, and Talking Point you post anymore; suffice it say, as usual, you are 100% WRONG!

    PS: when you find your testicles, please let me know; I know that it has been a Lifelong quest for you to find not only your testicles, but your backbone/spine; your brain, your intestinal fortitude, as well as integrity, honor, values, morales, ethics and most important, patriotism!

    But then again, these are Afflictions that all of you Anti-American, Pro-Jihadi Leftist Lying Nutbag Moonbat Traitor Cus-Omac’s suffer from, isn’t it?

    Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm??