AP reports: “Thousands Return to Safer Iraqi Capital”
Flying pig alert: The Associated Press reports positive news about the security situation in Baghdad…
In a dramatic turnaround, more than 3,000 Iraqi families driven out of their Baghdad neighborhoods have returned to their homes in the past three months as sectarian violence has dropped, the government said Saturday.
Saad al-Azawi, his wife and four children are among them. They fled to Syria six months ago, leaving behind what had become one of the capital’s more dangerous districts—west Baghdad’s largely Sunni Khadra region.
The family had been living inside a vicious and bloody turf battle between al-Qaida in Iraq and Mahdi Army militiamen. But Azawi said things began changing, becoming more peaceful, in August when radical anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his Mahdi Army fighters to stand down nationwide.
About the same time, the Khadra neighborhood Awakening Council rose up against brutal al-Qaida control—the imposition of its austere interpretation of Islam, along with the murder and torture of those who would not comply.
The uprising originated in Iraq’s west and flowed into the capital. Earlier this year, the Sunni tribes and clans in the vast Anbar province began their own revolt and have successfully rid the largely desert region of al-Qaida control.
At one point the terrorist group virtually controlled Anbar, often with the complicity of the vast Sunni majority who welcomed the outsiders in their fight against American forces.
But, U.S. officials say, al-Qaida overplayed its hand with Iraq’s Sunnis, who practice a moderate version of Islam. American forces were quick to capitalize on the upheaval, welcoming former Sunni enemies as colleagues in securing what was once the most dangerous region of the country.
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Related: How long before the MSM catches up and reports on “The Longest Morning?”
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I see an Alka Seltzer and Excedrin day for the left. Too bad they can’t be happy about good news for our country.
Just think what a mess it would have been if the U.S. had given up when the left first started whining.
Yet another story that will not be covered by the MSM.
I blame President Bush.
I hope you’re kidding.
The main stream media (MSM) is just now catching up with the blogosphere?
I hope that pig flying is pork free. LOL BLT’S for lunch?
Good news for America, bad news for Democrats poll numbers.
That’s the dividend on the “investment” in defeat.
What shape would we be in today if the Democrats had invested in our troops instead?
Yes I was, bad joke.
Brian, we would be done with this war. All the world would have seen the true super power that we are. But, we have the Democrats and the media to blame for making it last longer.
Reid and Pelosi have to work harder at losing the war or they will be too late…
I wonder what the turn coat Demorats response will be. Such as the leaders Dingy Harry’s & Madame Nancy.
New York Times editorial, tomorrow morning:
Notice that the liberal screech has turned to Bush’s warnings to Iran. They cannot possibly let him have a victory there diplomatically or by force. They are in full preemptive whine.
LOL #13, It’s Bush’s fault that there is good news?
They should see this:
Good news for Iraq and America, bad news for Democrats.
Awakening Counsel??? They have an Awakening Counsel and all we have is a Congress???
Gee, I wonder what it’s approval ratting is? Could it be greater than 11% Hmmmm?
Of course it is a Republican propaganda story, that is the only explanation. We all know that Iraq is a complete and total disaster with no room for any success ever. How else are the Democrats going to pin the failure on Bush and all Republicans for the next twenty years, shoring up their traditional foreign policy weakness issues with the public?
Priorities, man! Priorities!
We’ll see more and more of this as we get toward the conventions, but the spin will be that the dems are reponsible for the turnaround in Iraq, et al, that we’d still be in a bad situation there if we hadn’t elected dems in ‘06 and gosh, don’t you want them to finish the job by electing a dem as POTUS in ‘08?
Mark my words.
I love the graphic, it is so perfect on so many levels.
I think the “right wing media” is throwing the dog a bone. They will cover this just to cover up Killery’s flop over the DL issue.
Now, Killery, stand…good girl….sit…good girl….roll over…good girl…now go away…GGGGOOOOOOODDDDD GGGGRRRRRRRLLLLL.
Oh, and take your interns with you
OT-
wow! back from the twilight zone….
coooooooool.
As they say on Wall Street, the defeatists sold short and the stock price rose. (Or so we hope.)
Clear the flight deck for a pig roast. Navy beat Notre Dame today, too. I bet those people in Hell are enjoying their ice water!
Great news. My son invested a number of years of his life there for us and them.
al-Qaida beaten, sunni tribes unifying, peace and security being restored, militias standing down, Iraqi army standing up, this is Victory in Iraq!
It is only defeat for the left.
“America loves a winner, and will not tolerate a loser, this is why America has never, and will never, lose a war.”
General George S. Patton, Jr.
As much as I despise the “can’t win” stance the left has taken in the past, here’s hoping the winds of change can bring us all back to the most important issue– stability in Iraq, continued freedom from tyranny for the Iraqis and a well-deserved homecoming for the US military men and women. Those are things we can share as a nation.
I’m either overly optimistic or Thanksgiving setiment is creeping in a little early. (pass the punkin’ pie, please)
A success, be it very small. There are over 4 million displaced Iraqis so there is a very long way to go yet.
MSM, such as the New York Times, has reported on this.
Brian (#13) -
You forgot to add the following:
The MSM holds their breath, closes their eyes, and stamps their feet!
This is the kind of crap you put in a sports summary describing a key play, not in news.
There is absolutely nothing “dramatic” about the falling violence in Iraq, unless you want to consider your turnaround time between 2006 and 2007, and if you do then General Petraus beat you to the punch on that news 3 weeks ago.
More lame stream stories from the Lame Stream Media.
Goodness, I do believe your feelings about AP and the “MSM” depend on what they’re reporting.
You can find the backstory at Juan Cole’s blog. It seems that much of the violence in Baghdad was ethnic clensing by Shiite militias. The violence has gone down because the clensing was successful. The Sunni population of Baghdad is a fraction of what it was two years ago. The Sunni population of Baghdad used to be in the millions, so 3000 returning, even if they are Sunni, is not many.
“I have Bush. I hate America. I would do anything to secure victory for the Islamonazicommiefascists in Iraq and here at home” (not what I have said, but how it will be read)
As they should. Wouldn’t you expect that from a top notch journalist? Or have you become so accustomed to the MSM “liberal way” that you cannot see the forest for the trees?
You are full of spin, lgm. The US Armed Forces will never be credited for anything positive that comes out Iraq. It is as if you people think these things were bound to happen, we (US Armed Forces) just happened to be “in the right place at the right time.”
But the moment something goes wrong, you people can’t pull out the “Bush’s war” card fast enough.
Bush lied people died.
It is reprehensible that you think war is a catch phrase or better yet, a bumper sticker.
We are winning and I don’t care if that is incrementally accomplished or if the terrorists end up meeting their maker by the boat load. I find it surprising that you say the things that you do and expect for people think otherwise of you…
Care to back that up with numbers, seeing as how Sunnis are the minority in Iraq, with 4.5 million people total in Baghdad? Shi’ites rose against Sunnis via “ethnic cleansing” as reprisal for decades of oppression under Saddam’s Ba’ath party, which, as a political party, was a Sunni organization.
By your logic, the Shi’ites should be reduced to a paltry dozen after all the “ethnic cleansing” done to them by the Sunnis.
The simple fact is that this particular region of Baghdad used to be uninhabitable, due to sectarian violence, to the people who are now returning. Peace has been restored. That is a GOOD thing.