Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

The fading insurgency in Iraq

Captain's Quarters:

The top-ranking Marine in Iraq tells the New York Times that the insurgency has tailed off to its lowest level in months, evidence that the Ba'athist remnants and the foreign jihadists have lost the momentum and any popular support they might have had:

"The top Marine officer in Iraq said Friday that the number of attacks against American troops in Sunni-dominated western Iraq and death tolls had dropped sharply over the last four months, a development that he called evidence that the insurgency was weakening in one of the most violent areas of the country. The officer, Lt. Gen. John F. Sattler, head of the First Marine Expeditionary Force, said that insurgents were averaging about 10 attacks a day, and that fewer than two of those attacks killed or wounded American forces or damaged equipment. That compared with 25 attacks a day, five of them with casualties or damage, in the weeks leading up to the pivotal battle of Falluja in November, he said."

...

Part of that success comes from re-establishing Iraqi civilian authority in Fallujah, which has started coming back from ghost-town status. Prior to the American reduction of the terrorist stronghold in November, the entire town was under the thumb of Zarqawi's minions, and reportedly Zarqawi himself, although he bugged out when the Americans showed up. Now a force of 5,000 trained Iraqi police and troops patrol Fallujah, Ramadi, and outlying areas, encouraging those who fled the fighting to return. About 90,000 have done so, around a third of those who lived there before November.

Defeating the insurgency in Iraq is not only a devastating blow to the Baathis and al Qaeda, it is also a devastating blow to the central tenant of liberal Democrat strategy in the use of force. Since Vietnam, liberal Democrats, who were responsible for losing that war have acted on the belief that insurgencies were unwinnable, probably because they demonstrated that they could not win them. However, getting the liberals to acknowledge their erronious beliefs is unlikely. Liberal Democrats have unplumbed depths of avoidance and denial.