Via Belmont Club (where there's more from Bill Roggio).
I'm getting word of a major battle last week in Iraq last week, between terrorists and elements of the 82nd Airborne, east of Baghdad. One U.S. officer described the engagement as "one of the five biggest battles" between U.S. troops and insurgents in recent years. Other reports indicate as many as 100 terrorists were killed in the fighting, which lasted for several days. American casualties were described as "light." The engagement reportedly began when the 82nd discovered--an attacked--an apparent terrorist training camp. So far, no confirmation of this operation from the "western press" in Iraq, nor the Multi-National Forces in Iraq (MNF-I) public affairs office.
A comment there points to this briefing, which may refer to the same engagement . Worth your time, it includes progress reports on infrastructure projects to this update on Fallujah;
The people in Iraq are showing tremendous perseverance in fighting these foreign influences that seek to destroy their goal of a unified Iraq. Last week, I was in Fallujah and had the opportunity there to see some different examples of this.Fallujah just was under assault from foreign fighters and terrorists two years ago this very month. It was a city without security, stability or even any hope. The situation was so bad that we mounted a massive rescue effort for the people of that city. In October of 2004, coalition forces launched Operation Al-Fajr, named after the Iraqi word for "dawn." Led by American Marines, coalition forces took on an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 terrorists who had driven out the legitimate residents of their neighborhoods. The population of Fallujah had largely fled the city, reducing the number of residents to somewhere in the figure of 50,000 to 60,000.
Last week, I saw a city of about 300,000 people, who have made incredible progress over these past two years. I witnessed a city council meeting, where a democratically elected mayor and city council led the deliberations and talked about the people's business. I saw Iraqis policing their own neighborhoods, enforcing their own laws and transitioning to responsibility for their own security and growth. I saw an Iraqi army that cooperates with an Iraqi police force, a situation few would have believed achievable in Fallujah just one short year ago. I even saw a processing center where Fallujah welcomes persons displaced by instability elsewhere in Iraq.
In the aftermath of Operation Al-Fajr, as late as September of 2005, there were still 3,000 United States Marines and only 300 Iraqi security forces in Fallujah. Today the people of the city are protected by 1,500 members of their own Iraqi security forces, and there are approximately only 300 U.S. Marines.
Taking the historical long view, a food for thought piece - "The Human Calculus";
As things stand, the conflict with Islamic radicalism involves the lowest average daily military fatality rate of any long run national security era. It may worsen, it may improve. If Congress had been asked on September 12, 2001, to endorse a national defense posture against Islamic radicalism that traded up to 2 military fatalities per day over the subsequent five years in return for no additional homeland attacks, the deposing of terror friendly regimes in Afghanistan and Iraq, the ending of Libya's nuclear program, what would they have done? Would Congress accept that bargain today?
Finally, this at In From The Cold - Labouchere of Arabia.
That should keep you busy for a while.
uh Kate, you said somewheres about the nom de plume 'qwerty' in use for a couple months?
quite a coincidence. right about when I started using it. also considering everything Ive seen under that handle was all mine, for instance:
LOL !!!
Posted by qwerty at October 23, 2006 12:07 PM
mine
or this one?
frankly, I want the leader of this country escorted in a hardened limo with lots of motorcycle cops. the shock effect of some terrorist attack would not be woth the cost savings. besides, the limo rides were perfected by one mr pebble waterhole if you know what I mean....
also, in regard to the generosity of mr gates, he's still doing it so the figures so far considering his young age are only a fraction.
he really does put his money where his mouth is and a record sum and all carefully managed.
Posted by qwerty at October 22, 2006 11:22 PM
mine
or this one?
so I moved the post hole digger over about a foot and put the new fence entirely on my side of the property line. it wound up a tad out of alignment, very noticable from his viewpoint sideways. but not at all from mine straight on.
and now hes looking at a completely mismatched set up, exactly what he based his objections on in the first place.
tsk bloody tsk.
Posted by qwerty at October 26, 2006 06:24 PM
mine
etc etc
when I get a digital camera I will upload a pic of the fence in need of orthodontics.
whatever.
Exactly - and the We-Want-Doom leftists and MSM choose not merely to reject these signs of a people taking charge and moving out of the slavery of tribal dictatorship - but to support their remaining in that tribalism.
The fact that the population has grown too large for a tribal political and economic system; the fact that tribalism has prevented the emergence of a middle class; the fact that this enforced status as a low-class peasant is the source of Islamic fascism - is all ignored by the left.
And, they think that a political system is a mere matter of choice - as if you choose to live within tribalism or even, democracy. It isn't that simple. A mega-population in an industrial economy rests on the foundation of a middle class; and that means only one political mode is possible. Democracy - which empowers that middle class.
That's what we are seeing emerge, slowly, in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is what the ME tribal states, such as Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, fear.
Bigger encounters. More successful encounters, true. Pulled punches, all the same.
Amassing the nato gang against Moqtada*s Blackshirts in Sadr City is what is called for and Nouri al Maliki was allowed to call that one off.
Window dressing. Pulled punches. = TG
Oh, and I forgot to mention. The Sunni minority is no longer the enemy.
We need their help, [along with the Sunni in the countries surrounding Iraq], to tackle the real enemy, the Persian Shiia, [Iran] and they are the Blackshirts of Moqtada al Sadr.
The Blackshirts are to Iraq, exactly as the Hizbollah are to Lebanon. [Iran proxy]
The Sunni and Shiia are at each other*s throats so for us to attack the minority Sunni is beyond stupid as we are working for Ahmadinejad and Iran.
Who appointed al Maliki anyway? This has gone away off the tracks. = TG
The Coalition and Iraqi troops are taking care of business there--like President Bush has repeatedly said, "We stay, we win." And they will--regardless of the mindless drivel from the left, such as that screwball that appeared on TVO's The Agenda last night. You know who I'm talking about--the moron from Ryerson (Rye High); a carryover from the bankrupt hippie days.
Richard - yes - I saw that episode on TVO - and the mindless drone from Ryerson, with his push-a-button monologue on 'it's all about oil' and 'US imperialism'. He was quite readily shot down by the others - who aren't deadbrains.
Oil and US imperialism were central to the invasion of Iraq, just as they were central to the protection of Kuwait 15 years ago.
All the major powers act in the interest of their elites. The talk of "liberation" from the US leaders, or "international law" from the European ones, is rhetorical cover for selfish agendas.