Still a Believer

"Sully, depsite his continued daily attacks on the Bush adminstration, still believes in the Iraq War and that there is hope that it all may end up well after all. Here is why:

For all this, however, it remains true that the past few months in the Middle East have not been without opportunity and even some hope. The training of Iraqi troops is slowly, painfully, bearing some fruit. An American soldier is unlikely to recognise a Syrian accent on the street, and see an insurgent. A trained Iraqi soldier can. The primary goal for the American forces in the immediate future (other than training Iraqi troops) is protecting the economic infrastructure — oil pipelines, the electricity grid. Unemployment, meanwhile, is dropping fast.

[...]

There are already divisions within the insurgency between former Ba’athists and the jihadist foreigners who commit some of the worst atrocities. The mass murder of Muslims, even in mosques, by the Zarqawi forces in Iraq has prompted Al-Qaeda leaders to worry that their cause might be tainted in the minds of the general population. One result of the increasing violence might actually, therefore, work to the advantage of the government. After all, many Sunni Arabs are educated, relatively wealthy and contemptuous of the Jordanian and Saudi fanatics who are clearly using their country for a broader, deeper jihad against the West and any non-Wahhabist Muslims."
Sandmonkey

Funny I was thinking the same thing. This thing is not over yet, but each day brings us closer to a victory.