Redstate

Just kidding. I mean, the Dems like to say that's why we ousted Saddam anyway....

Stare decisis is fo' suckas -- Feddie

The comments and data by Pejman are the single most persuasive type of argument that progress is actually being made in Iraq. For example, it is one thing for Patreus or Gates to claim progress in security, but improving the actual economic infrastructure BECAUSE THE SECURITY SITUATION ALLOWS IT is the proof of the pudding.

Here is another example:

http://www.defenselink.mil/dodcmsshare/BloggerAssets/2007-12/12140715092...

Go through the transcript, and at the end you actually will read the officer's statement "It's very humbling to witness the history that is unfolding here in Iraq and a privilege to be a part of it." The Dems can't argue that the troops don't believe in their work. Evidently, they just hate BUSH so much that anything he supports, they hate. They do so without logic, or reason, or quality data.

MOlsen6
Proud supporter of McCain '00 and McCain '08

Iraqi oil fields lie mostly in the Shiite-controlled south and Kirkuk, controlled by shiites and kurds. In the past, resistance fighters were able to attack pipelines and satellite facilities, something they can't do today so easily.

Evidently the Kurds want independence from Iraq, so they're being very supportive of a process they see leading them to the formation of a free Kurdistan. The shiites are the majority, they think the Iraqi government is a mess, but they see their group in control, and apparently decided to build up strength while waiting to see what happens. To complicate things even more, the shiite groups supporting the government are also pro-Iranian (I mean guys like al Hakim and his Badr Brigades, the Islamic Call Party, and the group controlling Basra, known as Fadila). These pro-Iranian shiites supporting the Iraqi government are heeding Iran's need to keep things quiet now because Iran doesn't want to get attacked by our Air Force. So for the most part they're lying low.

Let us also factor in the surge in oil prices, today oil price is at least TWICE as high as in 2003, and very few experts feel it will drop below $60 a barrel. This means Iraq's oil income is more than twice what it was when Saddam was in charge, maybe triple. And this makes me wonder, where is all that money going? They seem to have a lot less violence, cash is rolling in, but I have the suspicion the government we installed in power is crooked. I read it is as corrupt and incompetent as they come.

I wouldn't be too sure this Iraq issue is going away. If there's a lot of cash flowing in, and some of it is being stolen, and they still have different groups working as tribes or independent militias, pure greed is going to make these guys fight each other, it'll make the Gangs of New York look tame. It may not be the daily bombings killing 200, but it isn't going to be pretty. And it's going to impact the elections here in America.