Iraq War Sitrep

This article by Michael Yon is the best thing I've read about the Iraqi War in the last several months. Yon has been there forever, seen it all, and has no political axes to grind. He is cautiously optimistic and you will be too when you read it, as you should.

He contrasts the upbeat facts on the ground with the downbeat tone of the recent Senatorial hearings featuring 3 presidential candidates, among others, and our two main guys in theater: Petraeus and Crocker. Here is his conclusion:

We know now that we can pull off a successful counterinsurgency in Iraq. We know that we are working with an increasingly willing citizenry. But counterinsurgency, like community policing, requires lots of boots on the ground. You can't do it from inside a jet or a tank.

Over the past 15 months, we have proved that we can win this war. We stand now at the moment of truth. Victory – and a democracy in the Arab world – is within our grasp. But it could yet slip away if our leaders remain transfixed by the war we almost lost, rather than focusing on the war we are winning today.