The Long War Journal: Judging Success in Iraq, Take II

Written by Bill Roggio on March 25, 2005 1:30 PM to The Long War Journal

Available online at: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2005/03/judging_success_1.php

Again, how do we judge success in Iraq? The obvious answer is when Iraqi citizens take ownership of their country and actively root out the terrorists in their midst. In the initial post, Judging Success in Iraq, we looked at the audacious actions of Iraqi Dhia and his family to fight off terrorists. More stories emerge of Iraqis taking control of their own destiny.

The venerable Arthur Chrenkoff puts to rest the New York Times' claim that Dhia’s fight against terrorists "was the first time that private citizens are known to have retaliated successfully against insurgents.” He quickly Googles the news and finds two stories: "Inhabitants of an Iraqi village killed five insurgents who attacked them for taking part in the country’s historic election”; and "in the violent city of Ramadi… the bodies of seven men were found lined up in an unfinished house on the western outskirts of town... the bodies in Ramadi apparently were foreigners, fighters working for Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.” In Arthur's words; "Maybe the "New York Times" should start reading "Good news from Iraq" where I have been reporting on these and similar developments for quite some time now." Definitely.

The American Forces Press Service provides another example of the willingness of Iraqis to assist in turning in terrorists:

In the days since Iraqi forces rolled in to sweep out insurgents, citizens here are showing support for the operation by streaming to local checkpoints to personally deliver information to help the mission along.

Citizens also are flooding the telephone lines to the office of Iraqi Gen. Adnan Thabit, security adviser to the Ministry of Interior, to express their gratitude for the show of force and tips on insurgent activity.

More than 1,500 members of Iraqi police forces -- police commandos, a local public order battalion and local police forces -- arrived in the city March 4. Iraqi-led patrols have netted more than 80 suspects so far, officials said.

“The people of Samarra used to be afraid of the anti-Iraqi forces,” said Iraqi Gen. Rashid, commander of the 1st Brigade police commandos. “They couldn’t tell us any information. Now their fear is gone.”

Rashid said one citizen offered information about 17 targets, and in some cases, citizens personally led force members to suspects.

Read the entire article, and keep in mind that Samarra is in the heart of the Sunni Triangle.

The American military continues to crush the enemy whenever they attempt an open engagement. Blackfive, esteemed MilBlogger and brother in arms at Easongate.com, publishes an After Action Report of an engagement between an American convoy and “Anti Iraq Forces” (AIF), where a squad of MPs fought off and routed a superior ambushing force:

On Sunday afternoon, in a very bad section of scrub-land called Salman Pak, on the southeastern outskirts of Baghdad, 40 to 50 heavily-armed Iraqi insurgents attacked a convoy of 30 civilian tractor trailer trucks that were moving supplies for the coalition forces, along an Alternate Supply Route. These tractor trailers, driven by third country nationals (primarily Turkish), were escorted by 3 armored Hummers from the COSCOM*.

The MPs literally destroyed the attacking force:

Those seven Americans (with the three wounded) killed in total 24 heavily armed enemy, wounded 6 (two later died), and captured one unwounded, who feigned injury to escape the fight. They seized 22 AK-47s, 6x RPG launchers w/ 16 rockets, 13x RPK machineguns, 3x PKM machineguns, 40 hand grenades, 123 fully loaded 30-rd AK magazines, 52 empty mags, and 10 belts of 2500 rds of PK ammo.

Read the entire AAR to get a feel for the training, commitment, determination and courage of American soldiers - both men and women - fighting in Iraq. Here is the breakdown of the seven warriors of Raven 42: “two are Caucasian Women, the rest men-one is Mexican-American, the medic is African-American, and the other two are Caucasian-the great American melting pot.” Imagine the humiliation of the misogynist Islamist terrorists as they are being routed by women on their own turf.

The enemy is being assaulted from all sides now – the Iraqi military and police, the American military, the increasing legitimacy of the government, and now the Iraqi citizens. Lawrence Kaplan of The New Republic asks when the media will begin reporting the good news from Iraq in a meaningful way, or in his own words; “At what point does the press report a trend?” The Old Media has repeatedly failed to provide meaningful analysis of actions in Iraq and the prospects for success. However, there have been several neophyte bloggers who have been discussing the prospects of success all along.

Also Read:

Arthur Chrenkoff looks at The Wolfowitz Plan (queue ominous music).

THE WORD UNHEARD reviews the United Nations report on the Rafik Hariri Assassination, which has spawned the Cedar Revolution.