The first commentary is from The Washington Post, no friend to the White House and its Iraq policy:
The Iraqi UpturnDon't look now, but the U.S.-backed government and army may be winning the war.
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."
Read more ....The second commentary is from Michael Yon:
An Open Offer To U.S. Senators:One of the biggest problems with the Iraq War is that politics has frequently triumphed over truth. For instance, we went into Iraq with shoddy intelligence (at best), no reconstruction plan, and perhaps half as many troops as were required. We refused to admit that an insurgency was growing, until the country collapsed into anarchy and civil war. Now the truth is that Iraq is showing real progress on many fronts: Al Qaeda is being defeated and violence is down and continuing to decrease. As a result, the militias have lost their reason for existence and are getting beaten back or co-opted.
Read more ....My Comment: Michael Yon's comments appear to be on the money .... and the Washington Post's comments simply reinforce what Michael Yon is saying. They both point out the success of the Iraqi Army to attack and quell both Shiite and Sunni extremists. The training of the Iraqi Army has (and is) producing positive results .... lets see if it is sustainable. If it is, U.S. servicemen will be coming back home earlier rather than later.
Update: Iraqi Army Interdicting Iranian Operations -- American Thinker
The Unraveling (The Jihadist Revolt Against Bin Laden) by Peter Bergen and Paul Cruickshank, The New Republic
