No Room for Success

At least that is what we find via memeorandum.com, as a poster using the pseudonym "Chris in Paris writes on liberal Americablog:

Nine US troops killed in explosions during combat, just on the heels of 28 Iraqis killed Monday in yet another round of bombings. Yesterday I heard plenty of chatter from the pro-war crowd who talked about the great successes of the latest campaign but I've been unable to see a change and hear of the same old bloody mess day after day. How much blood is enough for the pro-war crowd?

Shaun Mullen at The Moderate Voice writes:

The downtick in stories in the prints, on TV and online about violence in Baghdad is encouraging and would seem to be a result of the onset of Operation Imposing Law, the so-called “surge” security crackdown in the capital.

But the relative calm is illusory. Anti-American cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr has withdrawn to Iran and his Mahdi Army and ethnic cleansing squads have withdrawn into the shadows, and I suspect that it’s only a matter of time before the surge is declared a success, both cleric and army are heard from again and the downtick is history.

Then there are the tireless cheerleaders like Omar, who blogs at Iraq the Model and has been writing for Pajamas Media. Omar’s latest sighting of the light at the end of the tunnel was dutifully picked up by Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit:

“Violent incidents are still decreasing in number and impact in Baghdad. Yesterday for instance the only reported incident was the abduction of an adviser to the minister of defense by gunmen in western Baghdad. It was less than 24 hours until the security forces succeeded in freeing the abducted general and arresting 4 of his captors.”

It is not my intention to deprecate Omar and Glenn. They mean well and I too want the security crackdown to succeed. But I winced when I read Omar’s words because I knew that it was only a matter of time before the calm was shattered.

In fact, it was less than 12 hours after he posted his wishful thinking that a suicide car bomber detonated explosives in a book market along busy Mutanabi Street in central Baghdad, killing 28 people and wounding 56 others. (Details here on the blast and deaths of nine U.S. soldiers north of the capital.)

Yes, Baghdad is a big place and the security sweep is currently focused in the Sadr City slum district. Troops cannot be everywhere. But in a war characterized by abysmally poor planning followed by four years of missteps, it is not merely premature to declare that Operation Imposing Law is going well after so short a time, it is folly.

Perhaps I'm reading too much into these comments, but "Chris in Paris" and Shaun Mullen both seem to be purposefully obtuse.

Yes, nine soldiers from Task Force Lighting died in two separate IED attacks north of Baghdad, and 28 Iraqis died Monday, just as 14 more Iraqis died nationwide today. I have little doubt that more Coalition soldiers and Iraqi civilians will die tomorrow, and the day after that. People die in war.

But what "Chris in Paris" either cannot see in the very account he cited, or perhaps prefers not to see, is that not one of the deaths cited over the past two days in Iraq reported by this CNN article came through the once common practice of sectarian death squads kidnapping Iraqi citizens, torturing them, and dumping their bodies in the streets.

Mullen is right to be cautious, but he too, is far more pessimistic than objective, and apparently almost willing to declare any minor setback during the security plan as evidence of failure.

This past Saturday, Arab news broadcasts from Al-Jazeera, Al-Arabiya, Al-Sharqiya, Al-Hurra, Al-Iraqiya, Al-Fourat, Al-Baghdadiya, and Al-Sumariya --eight television stations in all-- did not issue a single account of sectarian kidnappings, torture and murder in Baghdad. None.

That is not a positive change?

On Sunday, more than a thousand U.S. and Iraqi soldiers swept through Sadr City, home of the Madhi Army, without a single shot being fired in opposition. On that day, just one Baghdadi, an editor of the independent Al Mashriq newspaper, was killed when a kidnapping attempt failed in what was almost assuredly a targeted attempt, not a random death squad act.

That is not a positive change?

29 members of al Qaeda have been captured across Iraq, including the two brothers of Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq. In the same article they mention that Fuad Ahmed al-Mufraji, an assassination specialist dubbed "arrested the most dangerous man in northern Iraq," was also captured.

This follows on the heels of a battle last week where Iraqi forces routed an al Qaeda attack on a village in al Anbar, capturing 50 terrorists and killing 80.

These are not a positive changes?

Iraq is not a safe country by any stretch of the imagination, and the high points noted above are perhaps transitory in nature, but they are real, and they do show at least temporary improvements. It is a pity that both critics seem unwilling to weigh these concrete successes equally with setbacks both real and possible.

"Chris in Paris," and Shaun Mullen with him, seem intent on seeing only what they want to see. Are they ideologically immune to any accounts the show the slightest signs of improvement in Iraq?

It seems that like so many opponents of the war, they have far too much emotionally invested in failure.