The Iraqi Truth

A Washington Post op-ed columnist named David Ignatius recently returned back from Iraq. He wrote a piece for the WP which I feel really shows a good and un-baised truth of what is actually happening on the ground over there. Ignatius does say that the country is still a mess, but he feels that we are heading in the right direction, and the steps we are taking now should have been taken years ago. Here is a snipet:

I had a chance to see the new counterinsurgency doctrine in practice here this week. U.S. troops are handing off to the Iraqi army a growing share of the security burden. As the Iraqis step up, the Americans are stepping back into a training and advisory rold. This is the way it should have happened from the beginning.

A brutal stress test came on Feb. 22, when Sunni insurgents destroyed a revered Shiite mosque in Samarra. For a moment, Iraq seemed to be slipping toward civil war, but the Iraqi army performed surprisingly well. In many areas Iraqi forces -- backed up by overwhelming U.S. firepower -- helped restore order. "You never know the tipping point until you're past it," says Gen. George Casey, the commander of American forces here. With many U.S. and Iraqi officials, he hopes Samarra may have been such a tipping point, for the better.

The article is well written and the fact that Ignatius was in Iraq gives him great credibility. I suggest everyone read it.

Source Washington Post

-Brad