Converting former foes into friends

By Creature

Michael Gordon, the always reliable administration stenographer, pens a piece today for the NYT detailing the success American forces are having in converting our former Sunni foes into friends across the Diyala Province in Iraq. What seems to have gone unnoticed, possibly by even the writer himself, is that buried within the piece a strong argument for withdrawal is proffered.

Many Sunnis, for their part, are less inclined to see the soldiers as occupiers now that it is clear that American troop reductions are all but inevitable, and they are more concerned with strengthening their ability to fend off threats from Sunni jihadists and Shiite militias.

Knowing that "troop reductions are all but inevitable" has clearly effected the situation on the ground. While the wingnuts in the audience are convinced this shift in Sunni thinking can be credited to the surge, it's more likely that the Democratically controlled Congress' push for withdrawal is the impetus for the Sunni conversation to the American way.

(Cross-posted at State of the Day.)