Down with Barriers, Up with Iraq

"On November 13th I covered a mission in south Baghdad with soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division. General Petraeus once told me during the height of the fighting, back when violence was the lingua franca and victory was very much in question, that this area was the canary in the mineshaft. In his exact words regarding what Lieutenant Colonel Pat Frank had to deal with in one of the toughest places in Iraq, “SW Baghdad...has every challenge imaginable -- AQI, JAM, micro-fault-lines, good/bad ISF partners, good/bad neighborhood leaders, and Route Irish! It will be the canary in the mineshaft; if they can pull it off, this will be doable....”

It is critical to point out that General Petraeus told me this in 2007 – just at the crest of “the Surge” during some of the fiercest fighting in the war. Many people at home were saying the new strategy was a complete failure, but the Coalition and Iraqi soldiers were not tapping out, not taking a break, giving no quarter to the enemy, and expecting none in return."
Michael Yon

Just for the record, I called the war in late February, early March of this year.