November 26, 2004

Measuring Progress in Iraq

Jason Van Steenwyk sets out what progress means in Iraq in the final section of an interesting post on Fallujah:


I do take exception to the reporter's statement that "the victory over the insurgency isn't neccessarily any closer."

You don't kill more than a thousand screaming muj and not get closer to victory. Really, the reporter misses the point, entirely:

Every day we get closer to an election in Iraq, every day another police trainee gets trained, every day another Iraqi National Guard unit confronts the enemy and doesn't flinch, we get closer to victory over the insurgency.

And there's nothing Zarqawi can do about it.

He's doomed.

Iraq is bigger than a counterinsurgency war. A few thousand radicals cannot overcome the impulses of a nation.


Amen. Past a certain point, Iraq is going to wake up with a government they've elected, with a constitution written by Iraqis, and with an army big enough to secure their borders and well enough trained and led that they won't break when called into combat. After that, the US is just the big security guarantee that Iran won't go nuts and cross the border, useful, but not psychologically overbearing.

Zarqawi is doomed. He's just hoping to break us psychologically before it becomes to obvious to the media and governing elites in the West.

Posted by TMLutas at November 26, 2004 10:04 PM