All across the Southern California valley this month, residents of such a beautiful piece of geography are going to be experiencing what is known as "June gloom," or the onset of foggy conditions brought on by the jet streams and westerly winds. Therefore, I thought it would be prudent to provide some June anti-gloom, or just good old fashioned good news.
The war in Iraq has been a source of worldwide gloom running for almost 4 years now, with casualty figures far greater than what we expected, and a John Edwards shopping spree-esque price. That said, any good news coming from Iraq is worth noting, especially when it involves its own citizens rising up against the terrorists now lurking out in those long, dark Arabian nights. I'll spare you the loyal reader from having to put up with more of my rant, while saving myself the time of regurgitating it, by posting the links to the articles below. And just so there's no "conservative bias" charges coming from anyone, these articles are from USA Today, CNN, and the New York Times, not exactly right wing sources. (Blogspot and I are still working on the posting of links as, well....links, but technical difficulties have ensued, so you'll have to copy/paste these to read them)
This first one is from USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2007-06-02-kurd-pressure_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip
"I feel very comfortable when I see the American and the Iraqi troops because we are fed up with al-Qaeda, which kept on threatening us and our businesses everyday," said Firas al-Azzawi, 32, owner of an electronics shop. "They were ordering us to close our shops because they were carrying out operations. They also have started killing Sunnis."
The idea that a normal Iraqi would be quoted as such a matter of weeks ago seems impossible.
Here's CNN's report:
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/06/07/penhaul.iraq/index.html
And now the Time's take:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/01/world/middleeast/01cnd-iraq.html?ex=1181361600&en=d853b149dd9a2ea1&ei=5123&partner=BREITBART
These stories however are not just the "fringe" elements of good news anymore coming from Iraq, they are becoming mainstream. Al Anbar province, home to cheerful names such as Fallujah and Ramadi which were synonymous with vicious fighting led by Sunni discontent mere months ago, is now beginning to settle and ally itself with American forces. Indeed, last year Sunni imams and tribal leaders from Anbar province ordered, ORDERED, over 6,000 of young men throughout the area to join the Iraqi Security Forces, sent them to Jordan for training, and now those men are fighting with Marines in the once volatile district.
Strategists stress that developments such as these are being exploited by U.S. forces on the ground determined to drive a wedge between hardcore nationalist Iraqis and the ultra radical terror elements such as Al Qaeda. This is exactly why General Petraeus literally "wrote the book" on counter insurgencies, using the conquer and divide strategy is paramount in defeating guerilla movements. After all, as our list of multi-national allies in Iraq grows thin (gotta love the Polish, South Koreans, and Brits), bringing in Iraqis to take control of their own security is exactly what we as Americans want and expect them to do, and thus is consequently the only true chance for Victory with a capital V.
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