TigerHawk

TigerHawk (ti*ger*hawk): n. 1. The title of this blog and the nom de plume of its founding blogger; 2. A deep bow to the Princeton Tigers and the Iowa Hawkeyes; 3. The nickname for Iowa's Hawkeye logo. Posts include thoughts of the day on international affairs, politics, things that strike us as hilarious and personal observations. The opinions we express are our own, and not those of each other, our employers, our relatives, our dead ancestors, or unrelated people of similar ethnicity.

Monday, February 13, 2006

Terrorism on the Wane in Iraq

By Cardinalpark at 2/13/2006 05:45:00 PM

A bit of encouraging news from StrategyPage. One tidbit I found to be both plausible and meaningful:

There are far fewer (about half as many as last year) Islamic militants crossing over from Syria. Part of this is because of more army activity along the border, and more cooperation from the Sunni Arab tribes. But some of the decline is coming from falling morale. Potential Islamic terrorist recruits now know that their prospects in Iraq are dim. Not only are they likely to kill Iraqi civilians, but if they come up against American troops, the result will usually be dead terrorists and a failed mission. The terrorist money crossing the border is also way down, and police have found more terrorists involved in crime (especially kidnapping) in order to raise money for operating expenses.

It is entirely logical that al Qaeda recruiting has suffered as a consequence of political and military events in Iraq and more generally in the Middle East. Al Jazeera coverage of brutal executions of innocents, especially women, cannot help the PR cause of the islamofascists like Zarqawi. Al Qaeda attacks are killing far more Muslim Arabs than American soldiers, making al Qaeda militants extremely unpopular with the Iraqi locals. It has long ago dawned on the Iraqis that the Talibanization of Iraq is just as unappealing as the return of Saddam.

None of this means that our people are out of danger in Iraq. It continues to be an unstable place. And there remain important questions as to how the three critical political constituencies will come to agreement on questions of freedom, economic opportunity, power sharing and oil sharing. They could yet decide to fight over these issues. But there are increasingly many reasons to be optimistic.

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6 Comments:

By Shloky, at Mon Feb 13, 06:22:00 PM:

I sincerely urge you to read this before you get too excited:

http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2004/10/solution_decent.html

By Cassandra, at Mon Feb 13, 07:00:00 PM:

Exactly.

I don't know what gets into you people...

By Dan Kauffman, at Tue Feb 14, 02:17:00 AM:

The Casualty reports from the last few months have shown a continuous downward trend

Graph here

Iraq Coalition Causualty Count

By OBloodyHell, at Wed Feb 15, 09:06:00 AM:

Shloky:

I sincerely urge you to get a clue.

Even IF that assessment was valid at the time (I seriously question that notion, and claim utterly to the contrary -- I suggest that you justify it with reliable information from around that date, if it's worth it to you), it's blatantly obvious that it's a year and a half old.

Lots of things have happened in that time. THREE elections in Iraq. Syria greatly reduced in power in Lebanon. A lot of Al-Queda members finding themselves permanently on fire in an uncomfortable place. Lots -- and lots and lots -- of Iraqi civilians killed. Attacks by Al-Q in Jordan and Egypt.

ALL of which make the claims therein ridiculously out of date ---at best---.

WHACK!

Now, go ahead and stick your lefty head up again with more drivel.

I *love* playing whack-a-mole with lefties...