Positive Signs from Iraq: Baqubah Update

"The big news on the streets today is that the people of Baqubah are generally ecstatic, although many hold in reserve a serious concern that we will abandon them again."

-- Michael Yon (embedded reporter in the I-4 CAV)

Big News from Baqubah. While Operation Ripper has not been a complete success, it has seemingly led to substantial progress in the area. From the purely numerical standpoint 80% of the AQI top leadership escaping sounds like a failure, but even if that's true 20% didn't and wherever the 80% went, they aren't in Baqubah. Michael Yon writes that the Iraqi populace in the area seems to be adjusting its views of the American forces.

"I’ve seen this kind of progression in Mosul, out in Anbar and other places, and when I ask our military leaders if they have sensed any shift, many have said, yes, they too sense that Iraqis view us differently. In the context of sectarian and tribal strife, we are the tribe that people can—more or less and with giant caveats—rely on."

Daily interaction with the American soldiers, on top of the recent passage of the Oil Law have led most Iraqis to understand that we don't want to stay. Yon writes that:

"It finally has settled in that we are telling the truth. Now that all those realizations and more have settled in, the dynamics here are changing in palpable ways."

It might only be Baqubah, but as one blogger has said, the areas the longest under Al-Qaeda control seem to 'flip' the fastest and want to stay 'flipped' the most. Anbar is awakening. Diyala might be following suit. The future of Iraq is far, far from settled, one way or the other. The Jeremiads at home present as great a danger as the sectarian issues that still rumble beneath the country's surface. If we stay too long we will probably fail. 'Basing rights' are not an option. Iraq cannot stand as our firebase of democracy and American values in the Middle East. But there is also no doubt that if we leave now we also fail. The Iraqi people and our military might never 'get it together,' but they might...and a little more time is the least we can offer. The origins and justifications of the war are not the issue. The past is the past and only serves to help judge which road to take in the present. Should we pursue another Iraq? Heavens no. Should we abandon those, both American and Iraqi, who have worked so hard and suffered so much for their country and their people? Heavens no.