More bad news for the Democrats. Looks like we may get to leave as victors, instead of whipped pups:

“Al Qaeda in Iraq is defeated,” according to Sheik Omar Jabouri, spokesman for the Iraqi Islamic Party and a member of the widespread and influential Jabouri Tribe. Speaking through an interpreter at a 31 October meeting at the Iraqi Islamic Party headquarters in downtown Baghdad, Sheik Omar said that al Qaeda had been “defeated mentally, and therefore is defeated physically,” referring to how clear it has become that the terrorist group’s tactics have backfired. Operatives who could once disappear back into the crowd after committing an increasingly atrocious attack no longer find safe haven among the Iraqis who live in the southern part of Baghdad. They are being hunted down and killed. Or, if they are lucky, captured by Americans.

I am not saying the war in Iraq is over. Not by a longshot. What I am saying is that the effort lead by Congressional Democrats to get the soldiers to abandon the Iraqi people by leaving the fight before it was won, i.e. retreating in defeat, is now shown to be stupidity of the first order. The surge appears to be working and Petraeus looks like a genius.

I have always said that we need to leave Iraq with the power to defend itself. The idea of leaving the country before it was ready to stand on its own was asinine. This ending suits me a lot better than the country falling into the hands of al-Qaeda, or worse, Iran.

Again, I’m not saying it’s over, but I wonder how much longer they will need us:

Sheik Omar, who has gained the respect of American combat leaders for his intelligence and organizational skills, said the tough line against al Qaeda is also enforced at the tribal level. According to Sheik Omar, the Jabouri tribe, too, is actively committed to destroying al Qaeda. So much so, that Jabouri tribal leaders have decided they would “kill their own sons” if any aided al Qaeda. To underscore the point, he went on to say that about 70 Jabouri “sons” had been killed by the Jabouri tribe so far.

Soon they will not need us at all. If we would have left them to the wolves, it would have been another Middle Eastern enemy for the United States. Now, not so much. Good work all.