It's becoming clear in Iraq and impossible for the rest of the world to ignore. The U.S. and its allies are demolishing al Qaeda in Iraq. So says Mario Loyola who is embedded with the Marine Expeditionary Force there. He says it's because they've learned how to protect the people of Iraq and how to help them to protect themselves.
The impetus for Phantom Strike was, in a way, born in Washington, where Congress created a series of benchmarks for progress in Iraq by mid-September, at which point an "interim report" is required from Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander. The legislation inadvertently (perhaps "negligently" is a better word) created a "Tet" opportunity for al Qaeda here. If it can dominate headlines with spectacular mass-casualty suicide attacks in the days and weeks leading up to the report, the political climate in Washington might turn irretrievably against the military effort, thereby snatching a victory for the terrorists that they have failed to win on the ground. (Just as the Viet Cong's Tet offensive in 1968, while a military debacle for them, convinced U.S. media and political elites that that war was lost.) With this in mind, operational planners earlier this year began laying out a strategy to disrupt al Qaeda's ability to carry out the expected attacks.
In this war, media and political elites (the Democratic leadership) are not so much convinced it's lost as they are fearful that it will be won.
