US Special Forces are Out Kicking Butt in Iraq

Is Al Qaeda in trouble? Is it retreating from Iraq? That is what the StrategyPage guys are saying. Writes Harold C. Hutchison:

Despite the many brickbats of the media, al Qaeda has been defeated in Iraq, and is now retreating to lick its wounds where it can.

OK. That’s pretty direct. So how were they defeated?

In trying to defeat the United States, al Qaeda made three big mistakes: They fought the last information war, they underestimated the American leadership, and they also managed to anger the Iraqi people.

Another reason, according to this report on StrategyPage, is that the US special forces guys are kicking butt.

Under the Special Operations Command TF-145 is out every night following up on tips from informers.

The basic drill is for one of the four smaller Task Forces to grab a likely bit of info and quickly plan and execute a raid... The objective is to capture people alive, if possible, because interrogations and examination of documents starts immediately... Most of this takes place at night, and several raids may be carried out between dusk and dawn.

If old Osama bin Laden is still out there, I’d say this sort of thing doesn’t read too good. This isn’t a replay of Mogadishu. This is US soldiers out every night kicking butt.

There are still several well armed gangs and tribal militias in the "Sunni Triangle" of central Iraq, and some of these have been persuaded to make peace with the government in order to avoid a visit from TF 145. Iraqis are big fans of American action movies. And they note that a visit from TF 145 is just like the movies, except for the real bullets, blood and dead bodies.

We cannot know what the real situation is in Iraq. We must listen and learn and try to piece together what we read. At least we can be pretty sure about one thing. Our US Special Forces are out there making a difference. Thanks, fellas.