From Instapundit (the entire post):
“THE WAR IS OVER AND WE WON:” Michael Yon just phoned from Baghdad, and reports that things are much better than he had expected, and he had expected things to be good. “There’s nothing going on. I’m with the 10th Mountain Division, and about half of the guys I’m with haven’t fired their weapons on this tour and they’ve been here eight months. And the place we’re at, South Baghdad, used to be one of the worst places in Iraq. And now there’s nothing going on. I’ve been walking my feet off and haven’t seen anything. I’ve been asking Iraqis, ‘do you think the violence will kick up again,’ but even the Iraqi journalists are sounding optimistic now and they’re usually dour.” There’s a little bit of violence here and there, but nothing that’s a threat to the general situation. Plus, not only the Iraqi Army, but even the National Police are well thought of by the populace. Training from U.S. toops has paid off, he says, in building a rapport.
He says the big problem everybody is talking about now is corruption. But hey, we have that here, too. He’ll be heading to Afghanistan next week. “Afghanistan is a bad situation, but on Iraq I can’t believe things have turned out so well.”
He thinks that Obama will be able to pull troops out, and send some to Afghanistan, without creating problems in Iraq. Michael will be reporting from Afghanistan soon, and sending back video, so stay tuned. Things aren’t going swimmingly there.
Filed under: National Security, The War on Islamofascism | Tagged: iraq |
PurpleSlog - The Future Will Be Kludged 
“He thinks that Obama will be able to pull troops out, and send some to Afghanistan, without creating problems in Iraq.”
I think the gnashing of teeth and nearly incoherent jibbering of some right wing ideologues about Obama’s promise to “pull out of Iraq” is a bit over the top. After a campaign, rhetoric meets reality and action is usually based more on level headed realism than one dimensional idealism whatever it’s political bend. As I opined at Soob, Obama is unlikely to “bring the boys back home,” will instead re-deploy in a careful manner that is agreeable to maintaining stability in the war that he famously voted against. Hypocrisy? Perhaps. But he’ll be a better president and we’ll be a better country for it.
Also that’s a great photo of General Petraeus who is, thus far, among the most impressive human beings of the 21st century, IMO. Time’s 2008 person of the year if the editors aren’t living in a cave.
I wonder if future Americans will believe Iraq was won by Obama, like they believe Vietnam was Nixon’s war. It will be an interesting social experiment that will probably depend on how Afghanistan turns out.
General Petraeus is impressive. The US gets lucky in that we get the people we need when we need them. I hope he gets to get USA a win in Afghanistan too (before being forced out).
“I wonder if future Americans will believe Iraq was won by Obama,”
I am sure the partisans will try to spin it that way. I don’t see how the historians will though, considering it was one by a strategy opposed by Obama who said it could not and declared it a failure.
They could say, and I just heard this being said now at Neo-neocon, that the 2006 election of Democrats caused (meaning made) Bush to kick Rumsfeld (who was listening to his generals Casey and what not, which disagreed with Petraeus. This is ostensibly something the Dems hammered BUsh on, not listening to his generals) and appoint the more effective Gates and Petraeus.
If that can be said of the Democrats, certainly Obama can be said to be the ultimate repudiation of the GOP
Petraeus deciding who gets promoted inside the military is very important. If Obama starts appointing people like Wesley Clark, people will really see what a broken military is in wartime.