The Surge and Where Do We Go From Here

As I noted earlier today, President Bush made a surprise visit to Iraq today to visit with troops in al Anbar province. President Bush's visit certainly sparked quite a bit of commentary - not all of it positive among those bloggers active this Labor Day. Some would complain about the fact that Bush was smiling. Jammie has more on the craziness.

The WaPo wonders why troop deaths are down - they can't quite figure out why and say that the causes aren't clear. Well, there are some reasons - namely that we've figured out how to kill terrorists better than they've adapted to our changed tactics. If you keep killing terrorists and there are fewer taking their place, you win the battlefield.

And we're doing this while on the offense.

This doesn't mean that everything is peachy - the Yezidi massacre of 500 Iraqis by al Qaeda shows that the terrorists can still inflict serious pain on the Iraqi people, but they can't keep that kind of tempo going - not in the face of an ongoing military effort to clear and hold areas all over Iraq. Tribes have turned against al Qaeda precisely because they've found al Qaeda's brutality repugnant and horrific.

Others blogging: Sister Toldjah, Jules Crittenden, Macranger, Neptunus Lex, Outside the Beltway,

The Viciousness of al Qaeda

How quickly we forget al Qaeda's deadly attack on the Yezidi last week, which killed more than 500 people in Northern Iraq and is the second deadliest attack carried out by al Qaeda behind the 9/11 attacks.

Those kinds of attacks make discoveries such as this all the more important because it displays the viciousness of the enemy we face. And by we, I mean Iraqis, Americans, and anyone who doesn't adhere to the Islamic vision of the jihadists.

Coalition forces operating in Iraq discovered an al Qaeda execution and dumping grounds for victims along with weapons caches.

As Coalition Forces entered the Arab Jabour area, they immediately received small arms fire. The assault force returned fire, killing one terrorist.

During the 24-hour operation, Coalition Forces discovered an area used by terrorists as an execution and dumping site. The ground forces found human skulls, decomposing bodies and bones wrapped in bloody clothes. Wild dogs were rampant around the area, which was characterized by a crater where most of the human remains were dumped. Inside a nearby building, the ground forces found blood spatter and other signs indicating executions had taken place there. In another building, Coalition Forces found several improvised explosive devices in the area and a weapons cache that included trigger wires.

Intelligence reports indicate that al-Qaeda in Iraq operates in the area, and weapons caches in the area contain materials used in the Baghdad car-bombing network. Local Iraqis helped Coalition Forces find a stash of homemade explosives and a building that was suspected of being a car bomb factory. Inside the compound, the ground forces found numerous items used to make and mix homemade explosives for use in car bombs. An air strike destroyed the explosives cache. Eight suspected terrorists were detained during the operation for their association with al-Qaeda in Iraq and conducting terrorist activities in the Arab Jabour region.

While the media might focus on the more spectacular attacks for a time, disrupting al Qaeda operations large and small are necessary and prudent to improve the security situation in Iraq. A small group of ruthless terrorists can inflict pain and misery far outstripping their physical size. A media that focuses only on the terrorists' casualties without noting that the terrorists have been taking a fearsome pounding doesn't help as perceptions sway public opinion and those of many of our politicians whose sense on Iraq is often no more than sticking a finger in the air to see which way the wind blows.

Al Qaeda Bombings In Iraq Kill 500+

Yesterday's horrific bombings in Northern Iraq have killed upwards of 500 people. Expect people to claim that the attack is a sign that the surge isn't working, which is precisely why al Qaeda would attempt spectacular attacks - precisely for media consumption, not necessarily because al Qaeda is winning. It's all about perceptions, and al Qaeda knows that these kinds of attacks are good at swaying the media elites, especially in the US.

The death toll in the suicide bombings Tuesday in northern Iraq has risen to at least 500, local officials in Nineveh province said Wednesday.

Iraqi Army and Mosul police sources earlier put the number at 260, but said it was likely to rise. 320 were reported wounded.

The Tuesday truck bombs that targeted the villages of Qahtaniya, al-Jazeera and Tal Uzair, in northern Iraq near the border with Syria, were a "trademark al Qaeda event" designed to sway U.S. public opinion against the war, a U.S. general said Wednesday.

The attacks, targeting Kurdish villages of the Yazidi religious minority, were attempts to "break the will" of the American people and show that the U.S. troop escalation -- the "surge" -- is failing, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon said.

The bombings highlight the kind of sectarian tensions the troop surge was designed to stop.

Al Qaeda in Iraq is predominantly Sunni, and Mixon said members of the Yazidi religious minority have received threatening letters, called "night letters," telling them "to leave because they are infidels."

The bombings were conducted against the Yezidi, a religious offshoot of Islam that is a mix of different theologies and beliefs. Islamists don't consider them to be true Muslims, so they're fair game.

As for the current military thinking, General Petraeus thinks that some units may be able to be redeployed to other parts of the country as the situation stabilizes in some regions. This is a situation that has to be constantly monitored, since al Qaeda may just as easily slip by and attempt to reassert itself in areas left by US forces. Whack-a-mole comes to mind.

Al Qaeda's Bloody Tuesday In Iraq

As Jammie notes, al Qaeda was quite busy in Iraq today. They launched simultaneous suicide car bombs in Northern Iraq, in an area inhabited by the Yezidi and Kurds, killing 175 people.

Four suicide bombers hit Kurdish Yazidi communities with nearly simultaneous attacks on Tuesday, killing at least 175 people and wounding 200 others, said Iraqi military and local officials in northwest Iraq.

The death toll was the highest in a concerted attack since Nov. 23, when 215 people were killed by mortar fire and five car bombs in Baghdad's Shiite enclave of Sadr City.

The bombs tore through the districts near Qahataniya, 75 miles west of Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city, said Abdul-Rahman al-Shimiri, the top government official in the area, and Iraq army Capt. Mohammed Ahmed.

They said at least 30 homes were destroyed in the bombings.

Yazidis are members of an ancient, primarily Kurdish, religious sect that worships an angel figure some that Christians and Muslims believe to be the devil.

Dhakil Qassim, mayor of Sinjar, a town near the attacks, said al-Qaida in Iraq was behind the bombings, citing what he said were Kurdish government intelligence reports.

"This is a terrorist act and the people targeted are poor Yazidis who have nothing to do with the armed conflict," Qassim said. "Al-Qaida fighters are very active in this area near the Syrian border."

Michael Totten had been to this part of Iraq back in April. Totten's reporting from this region showed an area of Iraq that few media types visited because life there was so ordinary and routine.

All that changed with those bombs. The Peshmerga that operate in Northern Iraq are not going to take this lying down. Their homeland has been savaged, and they will hunt down those al Qaeda remnants in the North.

UPDATE 8/15/2007:
The death toll from these suicide bombings continues to rise. CNN estimates that more than 500 Yezidi were slaughtered by al Qaeda.