Meanwhile, in Iraq . . .

[darrels joy]

Meanwhile, in Iraq . . .
Our erstwhile colleague Max Boot has just returned from Iraq, and in The Weekly Standard he offers some reporting to counter the defeatism we've been hearing from Democrats and the press:

In the view of numerous 101st Airborne and 1st Marine officers I talked to, sending more troops to Iraq isn't the answer. Smarter policing tactics and better intelligence are what's required, and training more Iraqi cops should be the top priority. They could use more funding for such training and other reconstruction projects, since, as Petraeus says, "money is ammunition."

In spite of continuing attacks and various other frustrations, both the 101st Division and the 1st Marine Division display a fundamental optimism about Iraq and its future. As General Petraeus put it, "I think we're winning up here. We have very good momentum." General Mattis delivered the message in an earthier style: "We've got the bastards on the run."

The Washington Post reports America is fighting and winning in Afghanistan, too: "As many as 200 enemy fighters have been killed since the operation in the southeastern part of the country began Aug. 25, said Army Lt. Gen. John R. Vines, twice the number of casualties previously reported":

The al Qaeda terrorist network, which operated freely in Afghanistan before the U.S.-led war began after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, is providing some financial and logistic support to the fighters, Vines said. Al Qaeda is pushing the fighters to move quickly because it "wants to go to Iraq" to fight U.S. troops there, Vines said.

ABC News, meanwhile, reports that America is closing in on Osama bin Laden. The search "has been narrowed to a 40-square-mile section of the Waziristan region of Pakistan." Democrats have been making much of "President Bush's failure" to catch bin Laden thus far, a rather silly complaint. Was FDR a failure because he never caught Hitler? Still, there's no denying that bin Laden's death or (better still) capture would be a mighty satisfying moment.