Lightning Times

Iraq: Tal Afar Declared Liberated from Daesh

FDD Long War Journal:

Iraqi prime minister Haider Al-Abadi announced earlier today that Tal Afar has been “liberated” from the Islamic State. “Our brave Armed Forces have liberated Tal Afar and the Iraqi flag is once again flying high in Nineveh province,” Al-Abadi tweeted. “I salute our martyrs, our injured and their families whose sacrifices have made this and other victories possible,” he added. “Nineveh is liberated.”

The US echoed Al-Abadi’s announcement, trumpeting the quick progress made by Iraqi forces.

“The global Coalition to defeat ISIS congratulates Prime Minister Al-Abadi and all Iraqi Security Forces on their stunning victory in Tal Afar and Northern [Nineveh] Province,” Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR) said in a statement. But CJTF-OIR added a cautionary note: “While the city and critical infrastructure are under ISF [Iraqi Security Forces] control, dangerous work remains to completely remove explosive devices, identify ISIS fighters in hiding and eliminate any remaining ISIS holdouts so they do not threaten the security of Tal Afar in the future.”
...

Rudaw:

The commander of the global coalition’s forces in Iraq and Syria expressed that Kurdish Peshmerga have done “incredible work” in the fight against ISIS so far, and he is expecting “more contributions” in the offensive to retake Hawija.

“So people probably don't have a good appreciation for this, but I certainly do,” US Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend said during a Pentagon press conference on Thursday. “The Peshmerga were instrumental in stopping the onslaught of ISIS in 2014 and 2015. Across much of northern Iraq, it was the Kurdish Peshmerga who held the line.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi praised forces involved in the liberation of Tal Afar and all of Nineveh on Thursday, mentioning various Iraqi security units by name including the Hashd al-Shaabi paramilitaries, but not the Kurdish Peshmerga.

The three-star US general who will pass his command on to Army Lt. Gen. Paul E. Funk II next week, noted the defensive lines which Peshmerga held. ...

Erbil Essence

Al-Monitor: Is Erbil the next Dubai?
'Beymen, one of Turkey’s leading apparel producers and retailers, opened its second outlet abroad in the rapidly developing city of Erbil, in northern Iraq. Beymen CEO Elif Capci said that Erbil Beymen was opened through a partnership with a well-known local businessman, owner of Elegan Construction, Sarp Turanligil. ...'
Go read it all. Note that the article, originally published in Turkish at Taraf, refers only to "northern Iraq" and avoids mentioning the Iraqi Kurdistan region by name.

Clinton to Iran: Go ahead, make our day.

I'm pretty sure Secretary of State Hilary Clinton didn't mean this quite the way it came out:

"We have paid too high a price to give the Iraqis this chance. And I hope that Iran and no one else miscalculates that."

And if she DID mean to say "I hope Iran miscalculates", she should follow it up with, "Are ya feelin' lucky today, punk?"

Saddam's WMD Programs

Leaving aside the fact that he slaughtered more than a million of his own people and was prone to launching unprovoked wars against his neighbors — both good reasons for his violent removal — what threat did Saddam actually pose? Let’s go through just a sliver of the evidence. When American tanks smashed into Baghdad, Saddam had already completed construction of an anthrax production facility, which was a week away from going live. ...

Michael Totten: Working with the Tribes

Michael Totten:

Sheikh Sattar Abu Risha, leader of the Iraq’s Anbar Salvation Council before he was murdered by a car bomb in front of his house in late 2007, summed up the Anbar Awakening movement in a few concise sentences to Johns Hopkins University Professor Fouad Ajami. “Our American friends had not understood us when they came,” he said. “They were proud, stubborn people and so were we. They worked with the opportunists, now they have turned to the tribes, and this is as it should be. The tribes hate religious parties and religious fakers.” The tribal system in Anbar Province is ancient. Attempts to overthrow it are not wise. Both Americans and Al Qaeda learned that the hard way.

Marine Captain Quintin Jones, commanding officer at Outpost Delta in the city of Karmah, told me he works with tribal authorities as well as the mayor every day and can’t get much done if he doesn’t. ...

Captain Jones: You have to understand that everything is tribal. So when the sheikhs came on board with the coalition, whatever the sheikh says to do, that's what they are going to do. The sheikhs said hey, we're not fighting the coalition anymore. They're helping us push out Al Qaeda.

Go read it all.

Iraqi Islamic Party: "Al-Qaeda in Iraq is defeated."

Michael Yon:

“Al Qaeda in Iraq is defeated,” according to Sheik Omar Jabouri, spokesman for the Iraqi Islamic Party and a member of the widespread and influential Jabouri Tribe. Speaking through an interpreter at a 31 October meeting at the Iraqi Islamic Party headquarters in downtown Baghdad, Sheik Omar said that al Qaeda had been “defeated mentally, and therefore is defeated physically,” referring to how clear it has become that the terrorist group’s tactics have backfired. Operatives who could once disappear back into the crowd after committing an increasingly atrocious attack no longer find safe haven among the Iraqis who live in the southern part of Baghdad. They are being hunted down and killed. Or, if they are lucky, captured by Americans. ...

"The war in Iraq has been won."

Andrew Bolt:

THERE is a reason Iraq has almost disappeared as an election issue.

Here it is: The battle is actually over. Iraq has been won.

...

Here is just the latest underreported news, out this week.

Just 27 American soldiers were killed in action in Iraq in October - the lowest monthly figure since March last year. (This is a provisional figure and may alter over the next week.)

The number of Iraqi civilians killed last month - mostly by Islamist and fascist terrorists - was around 760, according to Iraqi Government sources.

That is still tragically high, but the monthly toll has plummeted since January's grim total of 1990.

What measures of success do critics of Iraq's liberation now demand?

Violence is falling fast. Al Qaida has been crippled.

The Shiites, Kurds and Marsh Arabs no longer face genocide.

What's more, the country has stayed unified. The majority now rules.

Despite that, minority Sunni leaders are co-operating in government with Shiite ones.

There is no civil war. The Kurds have not broken away. Iran has not turned Iraq into its puppet.

And the country's institutions are getting stronger. ...

I repeat: the battle for a free Iraq has been won.

Now the task is one familiar to every democracy, and especially any in the Middle East: eternal vigilance.

If you doubt my assessment of Iraq, ask Osama bin Laden.

Al-Qaida's media arm last week released a video on the internet in which bin Laden - or a man masquerading as him - revealed how disastrously his war against democracy in Iraq was going.

He called for intensified fighting against the Americans and pleaded for Muslims in the region to come help.

"Where are the soldiers of the Levant and the reinforcements from Yemen?" he demanded.

"Where are the knights of Egypt and the lions of Hejaz (in Saudi Arabia)? Come to the aid of your brothers in Iraq."

Bin Laden even let slip how badly al-Qaida has been mauled by the Sunni sheiks who have stopped fighting the US troops and turned on bin Laden's killers instead, by pleading for "unity" from the Sunnis and admitting "mistakes" had been made.

Take that as an admission of defeat for the terrorists, and a sign of victory for Iraq and its liberators.

To talk like this will, I know, choke many critics of the war with fury. ...

Why the Surge is Working

Pete Hegseth, New York Post:

I was in Samarra on Feb. 22, 2005, the day al Qaeda-affiliated insurgents destroyed the dome of the Golden Mosque, and am very familiar with the violence that followed. That event was a catalyst for widespread violence in Iraq. Destroying a Muslim place of worship was indicative of al Qaeda's overall strategy: foment violence, maintain instability, and intimidate the local population. And it worked.

The critics had a point: American soldiers were simply caught in the middle - not permitted to take action to stop the violence, and yet still very much in harm's way. But what the critics failed to see was that it didn't have to be that way - that what the troops lacked was an adaptive strategy that recognized and addressed underlying causes of the violence.

Enter Gen. David Petraeus and a strategy that did just that. (The term "surge" is far too simplistic, as it implies simply throwing more forces at the problem, when Petraeus' changes in tactics are even more important).

The new counterinsurgency approach - namely, to take territory from al Qaeda, hold it, secure it and empower tribal sheiks to work together and rebuild their communities - finally provides an effective "counteroffensive" to the chief tactics of al Qaeda militants and Shiite death squads.

Read the full article at the link.

"They hated it because it exposed them."

John Weidner at Random Jottings:

You would think that removing Saddam, one of the cruelest fascist tyrants ever, would have at least a partial appeal for people who call themselves "liberal?" (Or "progressive," or whatever this month's term is.) Fascist dictators are what they are against, right?

But the Katies [Katie Couric] of our world hated the idea from the start. They did NOT express themselves as "torn" between wanting to free Iraq and worrying that we might get into difficulties. And they still don't.

They hated it because it exposed them. Their liberalism is a fake. Not all liberals perhaps, but a lot of them. That's why I can never pin them down in arguments. There's no there there. There's nothing inside, no liberal philosophy or core values. Or any sort of philosophy. They are nihilists.

Mesoponadian

Alaa is blogging again, from his new home in Canada.

I consider it a good omen that my arrival to Canada coincided just before "Canada Day", the birthday of this country; because for me and my family it is also a kind of rebirth into a new life and a new country. Now, the country of your birth is an accident that is not of your choosing; but a country that you have chosen of your own free will and that has accepted you for citizenship for your own worth, when it had no obligation whatsoever towards you, and I have not come in as a refugee nor am I a wealthy man; such a country is perhaps more deserving of allegiance.

Welcome to North America, Alaa, and welcome back to the blogosphere!