On the Job Training

In our Civil War, it took a good 2-3 years to create a good army out of the enthusiastic rabble that made up our volunteers. A lot of blood was spilled to teach our soldiers the art of fighting. It took that long to weed out the generals who sucked and put the capable leaders in charge of the troops.

Over the last nearly two years I've argued that the path to victory was through turning over the fight to Iraqi government forces. We might have been able to win on our own but for the vast amounts of money and weapons that have made the Baathist insurgency a force powerful out of proportion to their numbers. But that was not to be and no claims of error can erase this simple fact.

But we are standing up a democratic Iraq that inspires loyalty by the majoritiy and we are building Iraqi security forces capable of beating the jihadis and Baathists:

The gangs continue to make attacks on police stations and army bases. These cause casualties, but with a security force of over 200,000 personnel, the attacks, while they make spectacular headlines, are not frequent enough to have much overall impact.

We are winning. And if there isn't a major event to throw us off track, we could be free to draw down our strength in Iraq faster than seems possible today when car bombs still go off within camera range of Baghdad hotels where the Western press stays.

Drive on. And watch out for the Iranians. They want to win, too.