Keep Despair Alive!

One of the articles of faith for those pining for America’s defeat in Iraq
is that the success of the tribal awakening movement in Anbar province cannot
possibly, ever, be reproduced anywhere else in Iraq.

We should believe this, I suppose, because every leftist who starts blogging
is instantly granted divine insight into the complexities of Iraqi politics,
thousands of miles away. You know, the same people who have been telling us
we have already lost in Iraq.

Well lo and behold, perhaps
the Juan Cole wannabes don’t know a damn thing about Iraq:

The tribal movement begun in Anbar has spread throughout central Iraq,
as thousands of Sunnis have either volunteered to join the Iraqi Security Forces
or formed local defense groups under Iraqi government and coalition auspices.
These "concerned citizens" groups springing up throughout central
Iraq have not been previously observed on this scale in the country. They permit
U.S. and Iraqi forces to hold territory they have cleared more effectively.
The volunteers who make up these groups, recruited and deployed in their own
neighborhoods, have incentives to protect their families and communities. They
are not independent militias, however. They are partnered with Iraqi Security
Forces and coalition forces.

The Baqubah Guardians, one such group, recently helped the Iraqi police in
that city fight off al Qaeda insurgents until coalition helicopters arrived.
The Taji Neighborhood Watch association searched hundreds of homes for weapons
caches. Iraq has hitherto lacked a local policing initiative, relying instead
on national and regional models. The concerned-citizen groups are filling
this gap while the U.S. and the Iraqi governments work to expand and improve
the Iraqi Security Forces that many of these volunteers hope to join.

I am sure the defeatocrats will explain this away with all the expert authority
they have displayed thus far. They need to. They have bet the whole farm
on defeat, and so they need to chant to themselves "keep despair alive!"

Crossposted from WILLisms.com