Al Qaeda in Iraq is defeated

If you're not a regular reader of Michael Yon, this statement would come as a surprise due to the dearth of news, of any kind, from Iraq recently on the mainstream radar.

So says an influential Iraqi:

“Al Qaeda in Iraq is defeated,” according to Sheik Omar Jabouri, spokesman for the Iraqi Islamic Party and a member of the widespread and influential Jabouri Tribe. Speaking through an interpreter at a 31 October meeting at the Iraqi Islamic Party headquarters in downtown Baghdad, Sheik Omar said that al Qaeda had been “defeated mentally, and therefore is defeated physically,” referring to how clear it has become that the terrorist group’s tactics have backfired. Operatives who could once disappear back into the crowd after committing an increasingly atrocious attack no longer find safe haven among the Iraqis who live in the southern part of Baghdad. They are being hunted down and killed. Or, if they are lucky, captured by Americans.

Things are very positive in Iraq, so much so, in fact, that Michael is considering heading back over to Afghanistan soon, because things are heating up over there.

Jeff Emanuel makes the case that we need to continue the strong presence to continue to be successful. He is not declaring victory as some would like. He concludes a long, interesting article,

To make any less than our best, most concerted, most unified attempt at victory would be to endanger America’s own security and reputation – which, after Vietnam, Beirut, Mogadishu, and the abandonment of the Iraqis whom we told to rise up after the first Gulf War, cannot afford another high-profile blow – as well as to break faith with the diverse, threatened, and disadvantaged Iraqi people, to whom we once presented ourselves as liberators, and to whom we now serve as the one and only chance at a better life, if not at life itself.

Here's a taste of what our soldiers are facing. This has been up for awhile, but it gives a graphic visual of the unseen danger.