Jul 17 2008

If One Looks At Basra We Can See The Future Of Iraq – We Are Heading Towards Victory

Published by at 12:50 pm under All General Discussions,Iraq,Sadr/Mahdi Army

Remember Basra, Iraq? That was the initial phase of Prime Minister Maliki’s efforts to take final control of Iraq and begin his march to eradicating the last of the insurgents. Basra, the second largest city in Iraq, was being run by the Shiite Mahdi Militia. And when the city was not controlled in a day or two the SurrenderMedia came out in defeatist chorus to claim all is lost, Iraq can never see victory.

To be so consistently wrong is an amazing achievement, and the SurrenderMedia is clearly out of its element and has its eye closed tightly to reality. But they cannot hide from reality forever. So let’s look at this shining failure in Basra today:

Security progress in Basra is “overwhelming” and Iraq’s second-largest city could be “another Dubai in the coming decade,” the commander of Multi-National Division – Southeast said June 14, referring to the bustling international business hub.

British Army Maj. Gen. Barney White-Spunner told Pentagon reporters via teleconference from Baghdad that Operation Charge of the Knights – ordered by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in March – has “well and truly” turned the tide in the city.

Before the operation, militias controlled large parts of the city. Militia leaders, many under control of Iran, intimidated the populace and turned the city into a crime empire.

Basra is key to Iraq’s success, with oil fields, the port of Umm Qasr and the international airport being economic engines for the region, White-Spunner said.

Note to Barrack Obama – this smashing success in Basra was achieved by ignoring you and your lame calls for surrender. The new Basra can thank all those who ignored Barrack Obama. As the Washington Post noted in a recent Op-Ed piece, Obama as become trapped by his wrong-headed, long term plan to surrender Iraq at any cost:

BARACK OBAMA yesterday accused President Bush and Sen. John McCain of rigidity on Iraq: “They said we couldn’t leave when violence was up, they say we can’t leave when violence is down.” Mr. Obama then confirmed his own foolish consistency. Early last year, when the war was at its peak, the Democratic candidate proposed a timetable for withdrawing all U.S. combat forces in slightly more than a year. Yesterday, with bloodshed at its lowest level since the war began, Mr. Obama endorsed the same plan.

What irony! Obama has not ‘changed’ his flawed and disastrous position through all this, but President Bush did. He threw out the old guard which resisted a troop Surge and put in place people and plans that turned a possible defeat into an emerging victory. And Obama is looking damn stupid (if not insane) to not note the progress and adjust his mindset.

Senator, give credit where it is due. Thankfully those in power ignored you and Basra is the result of those actions. If you want to see what YOUR plans would have wrought, just take a tour of the West Bank.

17 responses so far

17 Responses to “If One Looks At Basra We Can See The Future Of Iraq – We Are Heading Towards Victory”

  1. crosspatch says:

    Politicians like to leave problems in a state where things are stable but not quite resolved. That provides job security for politicians and allows them to grandstand as they meet and negotiate and have summits and such. There is no future in it when things are completely settled.

    If the Palestinian issue were solved, Obama couldn’t go to the West Bank and meet with the leader of Fatah has his current plans are.

    It is almost as bad as having continuously seated legislatures that hammer out solutions and go around looking for problems to which they can then apply them. You would think that after 200 years, Congress would have passed all the laws we will ever need, but they have to keep tinkering and changing and fiddling with things to justify their existence. They are so self-important it makes me want to hurl.

  2. Stix says:

    Umm, what Crosspatch?

    What Politicians, especally CONgress do is try and make law that is so muddled that no one knows what it actually means. My mom has always said that there aretoo many lawyers in CONgress. This coming from a lawyer. They make muddled law in leagalize and make the Supreme Court or Judicial Branch decipher what the law means, so they can not be blamed for anything, they blame it on the Judiciary.

    But as AJ has pointed out, thankthe Lord for the people in power now or else all of Iraq would look likethe West Bank and our military would beback here with their tails between their legs because of the incompetence of people like Obammasiah.

  3. hey norm says:

    wow — didn’ take you long to get the rnc talking points. as someone else said…this is akin to a successful drive by the losing team in the last quarter of a 56-7 drubbing. the 18 month long 20% troop escalation, that has ended with more troops on the ground than before, has not yet produced the results it was intended to produce. many of the goals have only been met with “satisfactory” progress. what spinmeisters and cheerleaders (like you) call a surge has managed to quiet a civil war and, along with other occurances that began well before the surge, has managed to put a cap on aqi — however both of these problems are of our own making — they did not exist before we attacked and occupied iraq. so mr. victory where do we stand today? 4000 troops killed. tens of thousands with life-altering injuries. trillions of dollars in deficit spending. we’ve managed to clean up our own mess, but iraq is stronger than before 2001, isreal is no safer, and al queda is at or near 2001 strength. congratulations…the tactic refered to as a surge has been successful in the service of a strategic blunder. and therein lies your problem. you are unable to see strategically. all you see is a tactic. you see basr and wave your pom -poms. but you are unable to see the damage beyond that. it’s well past time to stop refereeing a civil war and get on with decimating those who actually attacked us…the fight we did surrender in order to attack iraq, which posed no threat.

  4. hey norm says:

    correction. should read “…but iran is stronger than before 2001…”

  5. kathie says:

    I’M THINKING NORM WOULD THINK IT A GOOD IDEA TO SEND TROOPS TO CHICAGO…….ONE CHILD GUNNED DOWN EVERY DAY.

  6. crosspatch says:

    Nah, the National Guard has been stationed in Chicago for over 100 years and there is still no end to the violence. It is time for the US to pull out of Illinois.

  7. hey norm says:

    actually by the “logic” shown on sites like this we should attack tennessee…because more americans die from second hand smoke every year than died on 9.11. but y’all aren’t scared to death by people from tennesee.
    actually i take that back. by the “logic” on sites like this we should attack alaska for something done by businesses harbored by the state of tennesee.

  8. crosspatch says:

    A wonderful story from someone who attended the recent graduating class of the Iraqi military academy. Amazing.

    It wasn’t because they would be getting a regular pay check. Not because there is nothing else to do. These men have committed themselves to building a new democratic Iraq and the sheer joy and pride of their families tells even the most jaded observer, including a couple of veteran western journalists in my group, that something has shifted here that can’t be ignored.

  9. sherman50 says:

    “correction. should read “…but iran is stronger than before 2001…”

    No they’re not. They have two burgeoning democracies on their western and eastern flanks with American troops in both. They are in a significantly weaker position as anyone with an IQ above room temperature and who can look at a map can plainly see.

    “isreal is no safer”

    Second Infitada was obliterated, a wall has been built and one of their biggest enemies was hanged from the neck 18 months ago.

    “and al queda is at or near 2001 strength.”

    Hahahahahahahahaha! In your dreams.

  10. hey norm says:

    sherman50…burgeoning democracies? in iraq they have a new ally they did not have before. we gave them that on a silver platter.
    isreal is safer? is that why they are pestering the white house to attack iran for them?
    al queda’ strength…in my dreams and the estimations of most intelligence services in the world. but not on this site.

  11. kathie says:

    I found this at the “Freerepublic” it is long but well worth reading, get past the pleasantries to the meat.

    . Steve King Rips Obama, Murtha and Surrendercrats in House Floor Speech (Text – Must Read!)
    07/17/2008 1:09:24 PM PDT · by kristinn · 30 replies · 1,530+ views
    Congressional Record ^ | Wednesday, July 16, 2008 | Rep. Steve King of Iowa
    SNIP Mr. HUNTER. So, Mr. Speaker, thanks for letting me take this time. It’s always fun to come down and take a big bite out of somebody else’s time, and I want to thank the gentleman from Iowa for letting me take some of his minutes here. I really appreciate it. And the gentleman from Iowa, incidentally, is a very wonderful friend and a great colleague and a guy who really has been working this energy issue with great energy and was a wonderful host to those of us who spent our time in Iowa in that Presidential race, including…

  12. kathie says:

    I found this at the “Freerepublic” it is long but well worth reading, get past the pleasantries to the meat.

    . Steve King Rips Obama, Murtha and Surrendercrats in House Floor Speech (Text – Must Read!)
    07/17/2008 1:09:24 PM PDT · by kristinn · 30 replies · 1,530+ views
    Congressional Record ^ | Wednesday, July 16, 2008 | Rep. Steve King of Iowa
    SNIP Mr. HUNTER. So, Mr. Speaker, thanks for letting me take this time. It’s always fun to come down and take a big bite out of somebody else’s time, and I want to thank the gentleman from Iowa for letting me take some of his minutes here. I really appreciate it. And the gentleman from Iowa, incidentally, is a very wonderful friend and a great colleague and a guy who really has been working this energy issue with great energy and was a wonderful host to those of us who spent our time in Iowa in that Presidential race, including…

  13. kathie says:

    I found this at DEBKA file……..I think very interesting and totally amazing!!!!!!!! I’m always a bit leery of DEBKA.

    Pro-Western Lebanese leader appeals to Iraqi Shiite grand ayatollah for help
    DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
    July 18, 2008, 2:13 AM (GMT+02:00)

    From Baghdad, Saad Hariri went to Najef
    Our exclusive sources report that Lebanon’s pro-Western Sunni majority leader Saad Hariri resorted to the unheard-of step of a secret visit to the Iraqi town of Najef to seek the help of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani. He was desperate to check the Hizballah leader, Hassan Nasrallah’s meteoric rise to power in Beirut.
    In another development, DEBKAfile’s military sources disclose that Israel’s defense minister Ehud Barak’s visit to Washington, scheduled for this week, was indefinitely postponed.

  14. crosspatch says:

    First of all, as a general rule, if it is published in DEBKA, then it probably isn’t true. The author probably made it up as it was being typed.

    But the notion is interesting. I have been expecting the Ayatollahs in Iraq to begin to play a major role in Shiite culture and serve as an alternative to the monopoly role that the Iranians have had since the 1970’s.

    Iraq has the most sacred sites of Shia Islam and Najaf is a place of pilgrimage for Shiites globally, including Iranians. Sistani’s thoughts would carry great weight and wouldn’t be dismissed easily. He is a major threat to the Iranian theocracy.

  15. kathie says:

    It is an interesting notion I agree. Another interesting thing is that Hariri is a Sunni. That’s assuming that the contact took place in the first place.

  16. crosspatch says:

    Najaf could, indeed, become a major center of Shiite doctrine and the doctrine there is much more secular when it comes to keeping religion and government separate. Iraq doesn’t want to be another Iran and I have a feeling that is one of the reasons Iran wants to keep Iraq unstable. They don’t want Iranians on pilgrimage to Iraq to see a much better way of life to the point where they might either want to stay or agitate for greater change inside Iran.

    This will really get interesting as Iraq rebuilds.

  17. sherman50 says:

    “sherman50…burgeoning democracies? in iraq they have a new ally they did not have before. we gave them that on a silver platter.”

    Strange sort of ally. Unless of course you’re speaking from a brain damaged/drug induced state of mind. In which case, what you say makes perfect sense.

    “isreal is safer? is that why they are pestering the white house to attack iran for them?”

    I never said they wre 100% safe. The world’s bizarre war against the Jews, with the “Palestinians” as cannon fodder, obviously continues. But as I said, the wall and the annihilation of the Second Infitada (another gem Bush inherited from Bill “stock market bubble forever” Clinton) has made them safer.

    “al queda’ strength…in my dreams and the estimations of most intelligence services in the world. but not on this site.”

    Nobody ever said they were stronger, which is laughable. The Leftstream media likes to hype how they are constantly “regrouping” in the mountains of Pakistan. The media’s 90% reduction in Iraq war coverage tells you all you need to know about how al-Qaeda’s global ambitions are going.