From the Washington Post, some awfully good news.
Local insurgents in the city of Fallujah are turning against the foreign fighters who have been their allies in the rebellion that has held the U.S. military at bay in parts of Iraq's Sunni Muslim heartland, according to Fallujah residents, insurgent leaders and Iraqi and U.S. officials.This is attributable, largely to two things - the military ineffectiveness of the outside terrorists, and in contrast, the military effectiveness of the Coalition and Iraqi forces.
Residents say foreign fighters recently have taken to gathering in Fallujah's grimy commercial district after being denied shelter in residential neighborhoods because their presence so often attracts U.S. warplanes. The airstrikes and the turmoil in the streets have spurred perhaps half of the city's 300,000 residents to flee, residents and officials said.Local residents are done with them.
"If the Arabs will not leave willingly, we will make them leave by force," said Jamal Adnan, a taxi driver who left his house in Fallujah's Shurta neighborhood a month ago after the house next door was bombed by U.S. aircraft targeting foreign insurgents.They are taking matters into their own hands:
One of the foreign guerrillas killed by local fighters was Abu Abdallah Suri, a Syrian and a prominent member of Zarqawi's group. Suri's body was discovered Sunday. He was shot in the head and chest while being chased by a carload of tribesmen, according to a security guard who said he witnessed the killing.and
Residents say foreign fighters recently have taken to gathering in Fallujah's grimy commercial district after being denied shelter in residential neighborhoods because their presence so often attracts U.S. warplanes. The airstrikes and the turmoil in the streets have spurred perhaps half of the city's 300,000 residents to flee, residents and officials said.Now they are negotiating. One argument hawks (like me) have made is that military success will lead to diplomatic success - not the other way around. It appears that - like Libya - we may be seeing some signs that support that theory.
Persistence is valuable, and now, more than ever.
Woo hoo! Go, Iraqi vigilante mobs!
I just spent twenty minutes trying to persuade a libertarian that Ashcroft isn't the exemplar of neoconservativism. My irony meter has burnt out. I can't tell - is that sarcasm?
A lot of the news coming out of Iraq reminds me of the old Krushchev adage of the salami slicer. A little slice here, a little slice there and soon the whole salami is gone. I believe that over the next few weeks we will see momentum building in the Iraqi clean-up. Better intelligence form a effective net of informants, better tactics on the Army's part, an increase in numbers and training of the ING and police, and a sea change in the way the populace sees the gangs will rapidly decrease the number of attacks on the coalition and Iraqi infrastructure. Another adage from the WW1, Clemenceau I believe, "A series of diasters leading to victory."