How the war in Iraq was won

Grayhawk at Mudville Gazette goes from the North African campaign to a series of events in Iraq that resulted from the most overlooked metric of the war, the tip line. The tips from the local Iraqis have totally disrupted the enemy logistic operations and disclosed weapons caches at an astonishing rate making it difficult for the enemy to sustain his attacks. In a counterinsurgency operation the tip line is a leading indicator of the success of a strategy. The violence metric favored by the media is a lagging indicator.

Kimberly Kagan also explains how the new strategy in Iraq worked.

...

"As we assess the security gains made over the past four months, I attribute the progress to three prominent dynamics," General Odierno explained. "First, the surge allowed us to eliminate extremist safe havens and sanctuaries, [and] just as importantly to maintain our gains. Second, the ongoing quantitative and qualitative improvement of the Iraqi security forces are translating to ever-increasing tactical successes. Lastly, there's a clear rejection of al Qaeda and other extremists by large segments of the population, this coupled with the bottom-up awakening movement by both Sunni and Shia who want a chance to reconcile with the government of Iraq." These dynamics worked together to improve security.

...

The elements of victory are coming to light for those willing to see them. Unfortunately many in the Democrat party remain willfully ignorant of this victory as can be seen by House Speaker Pelosi's comments on "no light at the end of the tunnel." She apparently is looking at the wrong tunnel.