At this, point, alas, president Bush’s assurances on Iraq have to be taken with a hefty dose of skepticism. Every first-hand report from there – often from Iraqi bloggers themselves – speaks of spiraling chaos and sectarian division. Even Instapundit has been forced to stop linking to Iraq’s bloggers, whose first-hand testimony of terror and rampant insecurity would sadly hurt morale. But that doesn’t mean that the whole picture is gloomy; or that there aren’t some signs of progress. That’s why I’m grateful for the president’s detailed account of his side of the story. Here’s the president’s empirical, sober, and un-Cheney-like account of why there’s still hope in Iraq. He gave the speech yesterday. It’s the first of several. Money quote:
"Having Iraqi forces in the league has been critical to preventing violence from spinning out of control.
For example, on the day of the Samarra bombing, the Iraqi national police responded to an armed demonstration in an area immediately adjacent to Sadr City, where an angry Shia crowd had surrounded the Sunni Al-Quds mosque. The Iraqi brigade commander placed his troops — who are largely Shia — between the crowd and the mosque and talked to the crowd using megaphones and calling for calm and urging them to disperse.
After a two-hour standoff, the crowd eventually left without incident. And the national police remained in position overnight to guard the mosque until the threat was over.
The fact that Iraqis were in the lead in negotiating with their own countrymen helped defuse a potential confrontation and prevented an escalation to violence.
In another Baghdad neighborhood, a similar situation unfolded. A group of armed militia members had gone in and occupied the Almeda (ph) Mosque. An Iraqi army brigade quickly arrived on the scene, and the brigade commander negotiated with the group and secured their peaceful departure.
Once again, because Iraqi forces spoke their language and understood their culture, they were able to convince the Iraqi militia to leave peacefully.
Not all Iraqi units performed as well as others. And there were some reports of Iraqi units in eastern Baghdad allowing militia members to pass through checkpoints.
But American commanders are closely watching the situation, and they report these incidents appear to be the exception, not the rule."
These kinds of speeches are important. They show ideology ceding to reality – finally – in the president’s mind. I didn’t know this, for example, and am encouraged by it:
"Because the Iraqi people are the targets — primarily the targets of the bombers, Iraqis are increasingly providing critical intelligence to help us find the bomb-makers and stop new attack attacks. The number of tips from Iraqis has grown from 400 last March to over 4,000 in December.
For example, just three weeks ago, acting on tips provided by local citizens, coalition forces uncovered a massive IED arsenal hidden in a location in northwest of Baghdad. They found and confiscated more than 3,000 pieces of munitions and one of the largest weapon caches discovered in the region to date."
Senator McCain has rightly pointed out that we have one president for the next three years; and we are at war. Criticizing him is fine; but rooting for him to fail isn’t. I fear it may be too late to rescue Iraq from disintegration. I hope it isn’t. No one knows right now. But explaining to Americans the details of what is going on, and not hiding from them the truth of the dangers and trials ahead, is essential to victory.
More, please.
(Photo: Brooks Kraft/Corbis.)
The Dish 