Oct 31 2007

Diyala As A Microcosm Of Iraq

Published by at 6:57 am under All General Discussions,Diyala,Iraq

Been saying it almost all year: as goes Diyala so goes Iraq. The reason being Diyala is a melting pot of the major Iraqi religous sects. It was one of the last areas to feel the effects of The Surge, so it will trail by months the progress seen in Anbar Province, and it may take longer and not get as far as Anbar due to its greater diversity. But it is progressing, make no mistake about it:

Police chief Ghanem al-Qureshy bristles at rumors that his officers are in cahoots with the sectarian Mahdi Army. And he says he is certainly not hiring fighters from Al Qaeda in Iraq as neighborhood watchmen in Diyala province.

It is al-Qureshy’s lot that he serves Diyala, a place that is home to all of Iraq’s sects, ethnic groups and economic interests — and all their suspicions.

After a year of bitter fighting by U.S. and Iraqi forces, violence is down, and people like al-Qureshy are talking about reconciliation. But fear and mistrust have not retreated from this key province northeast of Baghdad, and the continuing threat was reflected Monday in a suicide bombing that exploded in a crowd of al-Qureshy’s police recruits in Baqouba, killing 29.

Since the war began more than four years ago, 216 U.S. troops have died in Diyala. American forces killed Iraq’s most notorious terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, here in June 2006. And when many members of al-Zarqawi’s group, Al Qaeda in Iraq, were forced out of Anbar province in western Iraq a year ago, they relocated to Diyala.

Still, Iraqi authorities and U.S. forces say a yearlong offensive against Al Qaeda in Iraq has put the group on the run in Diyala. In the past year, overall violence in the province has fallen from 1,100 incidents a month to 400, according to the U.S. military.

I predict Diyala will be the last large Province to be tamed in Iraq. As noted those terrorist forces which fled Anbar sought haven in Diyala. They did not find it. The US shifted forces in the middle of the Surge to include Diyala as one of its focus areas, and so it represented the last hope of al-Qaeda and hope is fading fast for Bin Laden’s thugs. If Diyala rises like a Phoenix from the ashes of the war, it will be a clear signal Iraq will succeed. So far so good. Let’s all hope things continue to improve over the next few months.

4 responses so far

4 Responses to “Diyala As A Microcosm Of Iraq”

  1. MerlinOS2 says:

    The left is in total denial. I saw a comment on a left side blog this morning that credited the decreased casualty numbers in Iraq being caused by the “success of ethnic cleansing” in Baghdad neighborhoods.

  2. Merlin: yes, that’s exactly how I proved the other month, that our resident Nutbag, “Bootlicker”, was nothing other than a Daily Kos’ian, posting their Talking Points over here, every time he spews his Anti-American/Pro-Jihadi filth from that sewer of an orifice, that passes as his “mouth”!

    He tried that tack over here last month; that the drop in violence in Al Anbar, was solely attributed to the fact that the US “let” the Sunnis cleanse the Shi’ites from Al Anbar.

    I CRUSHED him on that one, as well as ALL his other posts as well!

  3. WWS says:

    notice how he never shows up or posts unless he thinks the US is “losing”? Whenever events go against him (Like all the time now) he simply crawls into his hole, sticks his fingers in his ears and chants “la la la la la!”

  4. WWS: that’s a good one, and true!

    As they say about Hillary Clinton (also TRUE!); you can tell when she’s lying, because her lips are moving!

    With “Bootlicker”, not only is he lying when his lips are moving; he’s lying when his fingers are moving!

    It’s pathetic, it really is…