Iraq - We're winning!!

Wow! Just wow! That's according to the New York Times! Yes the New York Times. The Left is going to go ballistic when they read this.

"Here is the most important thing Americans need to understand: We are finally getting somewhere in Iraq, at least in military terms. As two analysts who have harshly criticized the Bush administration’s miserable handling of Iraq, we were surprised by the gains we saw and the potential to produce not necessarily “victory” but a sustainable stability that both we and the Iraqis could live with." ... As a result, civilian fatality rates are down roughly a third since the surge began."

And the Iraqis are stepping up to the plate.

"We traveled to the northern cities of Tal Afar and Mosul. This is an ethnically rich area, with large numbers of Sunni Arabs, Kurds and Turkmens. American troop levels in both cities now number only in the hundreds because the Iraqis have stepped up to the plate. Reliable police officers man the checkpoints in the cities, while Iraqi Army troops cover the countryside. A local mayor told us his greatest fear was an overly rapid American departure from Iraq."

Tell that to the Democrats who want to cut and run.

"In war, sometimes it’s important to pick the right adversary, and in Iraq we seem to have done so. A major factor in the sudden change in American fortunes has been the outpouring of popular animus against Al Qaeda and other Salafist groups, as well as (to a lesser extent) against Moktada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army."

Again, tell the Democrats who claim al Qaeda isn't in Iraq.

I never thought I'd read this in the New York Times.

"These groups have tried to impose Shariah law, brutalized average Iraqis to keep them in line, killed important local leaders and seized young women to marry off to their loyalists. The result has been that in the last six months Iraqis have begun to turn on the extremists and turn to the Americans for security and help. The most important and best-known example of this is in Anbar Province, which in less than six months has gone from the worst part of Iraq to the best (outside the Kurdish areas). Today the Sunni sheiks there are close to crippling Al Qaeda and its Salafist allies. Just a few months ago, American marines were fighting for every yard of Ramadi; last week we strolled down its streets without body armor. "

Let that soak in for awhile. Oh, and tell that to the cut and run Democrats. They and the Left are going to choke on this next part.

"But there is enough good happening on the battlefields of Iraq today that Congress should plan on sustaining the effort at least into 2008."

Reid and Pelosi, call your offices.