It seem we've decided to declare victory, and move on. Increasingly, the US has decided to talk about "progress" in Iraq. We speak of how the local tribal folks are fighting "al-quaeda" and how the neighborhoods are safer. Would that this were true. Violence in the neighborhoods has to do with the fact that sunni and sheite people have separated for self preservation. There is, thus, less sectarian violence. We've also built massive concrete walls between neighborhoods so that people are seriously separated. It's probably true that none of this has anything to do with the "surge" of American troops. They are still not able to speak arabic, do not know the people or culture, and still wander about as aliens in the land they occupy. If there is a reduction in violence (and reading my newspaper, I'm not sure that is statistically true), it's probably due more to the self separation of hostile groups than anything the "green zone" authorities or the US forces did. Still, it is an opportunity for GW Bush and his cronies to begin to declare victory in Iraq. They do not derserve the honor to do so.
