Totten: “Before the surge started the neighborhood was much more dangerous than it is now”; Update: Sectarian killing back to pre-surge levels?
posted at 3:51 pm on July 24, 2007 by Allahpundit
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A superb piece, albeit limited to just one neighborhood. All you get is a taste to force you to click:
The battalion I’m embedded with here in Baghdad hasn’t suffered a single casualty – not even one soldier wounded – since they arrived in the Red Zone in January. The surge in this part of the city could not possibly be going better than it already is. Most of Graya’at’s insurgents and terrorists who haven’t yet fled are either captured, dormant, or dead…
“We were on base at Camp Taji [north of the city] and commuting to work,” Major Jazdyk told me earlier. “The problem with that was that the only space we dominated was inside our Humvees. So we moved into the neighborhoods and live there now with the locals. We know them and they know us.”…
“Most of what we’re doing doesn’t get reported in the media,” he said. “We’re not fighting a war here anymore, not in this area. We’ve moved way beyond that stage. We built a soccer field for the kids, bought all kinds of equipment, bought them school books and even chalk. Soon we’re installing 1,500 solar street lamps so they have light at night and can take some of the load off the power grid. The media only covers the gruesome stuff. We go to the sheiks and say hey man, what kind of projects do you want in this area? They give us a list and we submit the paperwork. When the projects get approved, we give them the money and help them buy stuff.”
It was all a bit boring, but blessedly so. I knew already that not everyone in Baghdad was hostile. But it was slightly surprising to see that entire areas in the Red Zone are not hostile.
Read through to the end and see what happens if you don’t know who your enemies are.
Update: Iraqslogger put together a map by neighborhood of bodies found in Baghdad over the past month. The “good” news, such as it is, is that more than half come from only five areas. The bad news is that those areas are, as you might expect, mixed by sect and are less policed by U.S. troops than areas where they’re being attacked.
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Totten, Michael Yon, JD Johannes, Bill Roggio and Uncle Jimbo and Lt Smash (where he he gone to? buried somewhere deep in the Penatagram, er…sorry, Pentagon) should moderate the foreign policy part of the next Dem debate.
Mike D. on July 24, 2007 at 4:03 PM
How long can people keep insisting the surge isn’t working when it clearly is? Hell, even you sounded optimistic, Allah.
JackStraw on July 24, 2007 at 4:12 PM
I am so grateful that we have people like Totten and Yon over there telling us what they see and that we have blogs such as this that help get the word out. I am so grateful, in fact, that I have made a mental note to remember them on Thanksgiving day.
crosspatch on July 24, 2007 at 4:13 PM
Lies, more imperalistic lies. The surge isn’t working, it can’t work. Even if they say it is working who is they? Propaganda from the right, trying to shore up the dismal polls that show the majority of the people want out of Iraq, that it is an ill conceived war. The few “good” stories are offset by the hundreds, thousands of useless deaths.
Just thought I would type up the press release response for the NYT and others.
God bless our soldiers, and a curse on the miserable people who defile them.
right2bright on July 24, 2007 at 4:17 PM
Can Harry (”The war is lost”) Reid be forced to know this?
Nah. He already knows everything he wants to know. Ya know.
TunaTalon on July 24, 2007 at 4:25 PM
So, like, how do I get a surge to come to MY neighborhood?
CyberCipher on July 24, 2007 at 4:25 PM
Good to hear.
Ryan Gandy on July 24, 2007 at 4:28 PM
this is a must read…
Kaptain Amerika on July 24, 2007 at 4:31 PM
For the Dems to say these men and women have lost is about as close to treasonous as you can get without actually doing so. These stories should be required reading for those fools.
Kowboy on July 24, 2007 at 4:36 PM
Kowboy on July 24, 2007 at 4:36 PM
They not only would refuse to believe it but they would respond exactly as
posted they would.
doriangrey on July 24, 2007 at 4:39 PM
Please send a link for this story to any liberal friends you might have. Don’t preach and don’t offer conclusions. Just encourage as many people as possible on the other side to read this. Polls show support for the Iraq war increasing in the last month. The surge and its success CAN change minds. The men and women serving overseas are doing their part, and honest journalists like Totten and Yon are doing theirs. Each of us needs to spread this message. As Laura Ingraham would say, POWER TO THE PEOPLE!
D0WNT0WN on July 24, 2007 at 4:49 PM
Why doesn’t O’Reilly feature Totten or Yon instead of those so-called “experts” he trots out who haven’t got a clue what’s happening in Iraq?
TheBigOldDog on July 24, 2007 at 4:55 PM
Someone should force Pelosi and Reid to read that entire article, aloud, to the press.
yo on July 24, 2007 at 5:05 PM
We have to convince Michelle Malkin to force O’Reilly and others at Fox News to read it. They can get it out to the whole world in the blink of an eye.
TheBigOldDog on July 24, 2007 at 5:07 PM
I want A. Whitless Brownnoser to tell these civilians how lucky they are that our Killitary hasn’t slaughtered them yet. I want him there in that neighborhood when he does.
Freelancer on July 24, 2007 at 6:01 PM
but wait a minute the all knowing Harry Ried said we already lost . I take it our troops didn’t get his memo .
Mojack420 on July 24, 2007 at 6:12 PM
Anywhere you can kill jihadis is a good place.
Dangerous, yes, but danger is nothing unfamiliar to the military.
3 casualties a day -in a global war against the Jihad- is only a “hopeless quagmire” if you are a spiritual dwarf who is intimidated by any sacrifice to preserve the last best hope for human liberty on Earth.
The battle was begun well, the occupation failed miserably for 2 plus years (thanks to chickenshit rules of engagement and delusionally optimistic policy follies), but, all along, jihadis are dying.
That’s the point of theis War Aaginst Islamofascism, so we have to weigh the good against the cost.
When fought strongly, it is a worthwhile effort.
Fight harder, and kill more jihadis, is the only plan that works against homicidal theocratic psychopaths.
And give our soldiers, Marines, sailors and Air Force personnel the support and technology and encouragement they deserve.
Anything less is suicidal stupidity.
AKA- the Democratic playbook.
profitsbeard on July 24, 2007 at 6:30 PM
Since Iraqslogger map uses un-identified bodies, those could be AQ. One does not know. So in reality, the map is meaningless.
WoosterOh on July 24, 2007 at 6:34 PM
O’Reilly has plenty of free air time for the PDWG (pretty dead white girl) stories but refuses to interview, on a weekly/monthly basis, men like Yon and Totten.
O’Reilly clawed his way up the backs of other folks to get where he is today – no eff’n way will he allow free-booting independent journalists a free pass through the MSM front gate.
13times on July 24, 2007 at 7:16 PM
I can’t really add anything except my thanks. I get stories like this from friends and family who are and have been over there also. It’s so important as was said above to let anyone liberal know this. I do it all the time. But they don’t seem to want to acknowledge it. I don’t know if it’s fear or what. Would be great to see this covered by someone on TV or newspaper. Maybe Hannity? He supports the troops. Time to call him out?
PowWow on July 24, 2007 at 7:52 PM
I think AP’s summary of Iraqslogger’s post might be a little ambiguous:
By “back to pre-Surge levels,” Iraqslogger meant (in his words):
commissar on July 24, 2007 at 8:41 PM
Totten, Yon, and probably Fumento (for his work in Ramadi when it was “hot”) should be recognized by President Bush in his next (and final) State of the Union address as real citizen journalists who risked their own lives to bring us a story that nobody else covered in a way nobody else covered it.
If nothing else, they have told the story that our soldiers see, day in and day out. They are each a national treasure and their personal sacrifice and devotion to the ideals of real journalism (and not corporate yarn spinning) should be recognized.
crosspatch on July 24, 2007 at 9:22 PM
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