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This is how it ends...
By John
Probably somewhat exaggerated, but after Senator Reid declared the surge a "failure" before the surging forces even started major combat operations, I have to admit that this piece by Nibras Kazimi made for a rather pleasant read.
I hereby declare victory. I believe the Sunni insurgency in Iraq has collapsed, and all the casualty tallies that the insurgents are desperately trying to ratchet-up won't convince me otherwise. The odor of defeat hangs heavily around the "dead-enders" — a term I'd like to bring back into vogue because it's an apt description for those gangs that remain to be hunted down, and who will be responsible for the baseline violence we will continue to see there, but at levels Iraqis can live with and still prosper.Three months ago, I wrote a column on these pages, "Jihadist Meltdown." In it, I envisioned the endgame of the insurgency — the prospect of jihadists turning on jihadists. Over the last two weeks, the Sunni strongholds of western Baghdad have witnessed street battles between the two main insurgent factions responsible for the bulk of violence in Iraq: Al Qaeda's Islamic State of Iraq and the Islamic Army.
This is how it ends, with the remaining vigor of the insurgency being marshaled by violent men against like-minded violent men, releasing that unique anger and resentment that splintering groups reserve for those nearest to them in ideology. The Sunni insurgency, initially unleashed against the American project for a new Iraq, has become an internal Sunni problem. Its concluding phase shall be a process of attrition among Iraq's Sunnis that they must endure over the next decade — to be spent stamping out the embers of the fire they so foolishly started.
Streiff at Red State called Nibras Kazimi a "usually reliable Iraq journalist." And if you know Streiff you're aware that he is always reliable in his even criticism and dedication to accurate, factual punditry.
This is how it ends. Yes. Emphatically yes. That's such an important point, folks. Premature withdrawal is decidedly not how it ends. That's how the conflict is prolonged, intensified, and spread throughout the region.
This declaration of victory is incredibly premature, agreed. But Kazimi's core point here, how the blossoming red on red violence will eventually be undoing of the Sunni and Al Qaeda insurgencies, is absolutely spot-on.
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