Encouraging signs in Baghdad, offensive begins in Afghanistan

Washington Post:

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said yesterday that he believes the military's operation to secure Baghdad is showing "positive" early signs but that he is reluctant to use "happy talk" to describe the situation in Iraq because it remains violent.

Gates told reporters at the Pentagon that it is still too early to tell whether the "surge" into Baghdad is working and said top commanders probably will not know until midsummer whether their efforts at clearing out Iraq's largest city are making significant progress.

Displaying a sense of caution, as he often has in his first months at the Pentagon's helm, Gates said predictions that the U.S. security plan would elicit a rise in large-scale bombings and other attacks to derail the effort have so far come true.

"I think that there is a great reluctance to engage in happy talk about this," Gates said. "It's a tough environment. . . . And I think we'll just have to wait several more months before we're in a position to make any real evaluation."

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Gates said he is unsure how long the troop increase in Baghdad is going to last but said it probably will be months and not years, depending on the situation on the ground and the level of violence. He warned that congressional efforts to set withdrawal deadlines could be disastrous for Iraq.

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Gates appeared at the news conference with Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and both said they also are preparing for increased fighting in Afghanistan. Taliban and other enemy forces have traditionally made a push each spring since the beginning of the war in 2002. U.S. commanders are hoping to push back with their own offensive this year.

Pace said the NATO commander in Afghanistan, Army Gen. Dan K. McNeill, has begun his offensive operations: "I do not want to get into the specifics of the operations, but it will unfold very clearly here in the next couple days what he has begun."

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The Taliban's Spring offensive has been a flow so far. Their concentration on human bomb attacks has not been productive for their side. Unlike the human bomb attacks in Iraq which focus on non combatants, the Taliban have been attempting to attack US and NATO forces with little effect today.

It is hard to deny that we are having some success in the early stages of the surge in Baghdad and the outlying areas. Democrats continue to turn a blind eye to these events and they remain the best hope of our enemy in Iraq.