Unlike "conventional wars," wars against insurgencies rarely have clean beginnings or endings. So it seems a bit rash to declare that the Iraq war is over, as embedded reporter Michael Yon does. But you will see that he works his way rather cautiously into the assertion:
The war continues to abate in Iraq. Violence is still present, but, of course, Iraq was a relatively violent place long before Coalition forces moved in. I would go so far as to say that barring any major and unexpected developments (like an Israeli air strike on Iran and the retaliations that would follow), a fair-minded person could say with reasonable certainty that the war has ended. A new and better nation is growing legs. What's left is messy politics that likely will be punctuated by low-level violence and the occasional spectacular attack. Yet, the will of the Iraqi people has changed, and the Iraqi military has dramatically improved, so those spectacular attacks are diminishing along with the regular violence. Now it's time to rebuild the country, and create a pluralistic, stable and peaceful Iraq. That will be long, hard work. But by my estimation, the Iraq War is over. We won. Which means the Iraqi people won.
Yon provides a Power Point down load that lays out in graphic detail the dramatic improvements in Iraq since the surge began. Check out the "Ethno-sectarian violence" graph. Wow. It sure looks like a war winding down to a close. Barack Obama has promised to end the war in Iraq. It looks like George W. may have beaten him to it.
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