While we’re more focused now on domestic issues, our brave men and women in uniform are still fighting the good fight in Iraq and getting the bad guys:
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced today the deaths of Abu Hamzah al-Muhajir, more commonly known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri, al-Qaida’s top leader in Iraq, and Hamid Dawud Muhammad Khalil al-Zawi, or Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the head of the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq. The two were killed during a nighttime raid on what the U.S. military described as an al-Qaida safe house, U.S. forces in Iraq said in a statement confirming the deaths of the two leaders.
Two terrorists dead.
United States Forces-Iraq Commander Gen. Raymond T. Odierno called their deaths “potentially the most significant blow to al-Qaida in Iraq since the beginning of the insurgency”. While Odierno is leading an operation begun when George W. Bush was president, he’s doing it during Barack Obama’s watch. The bulk of the credit may belong to our service members on the ground too, but by dint of his role as Commander in Chief, the president also should accolades for this successful operation.
Kudos, Mr. President, for continuing to take the fight to the terrorists.
UPDATE: Max Boot reports that “Even before [these terrorists’] demise, Odierno noted on Fox News Sunday, security trends were positive“:
First quarter fiscal year ‘10 was the lowest number of incidents we’ve had in a quarter, the lowest number of high-profile attacks, the lowest number of indirect fire attacks, the lowest number of civilian casualties, the lowest number of U.S. force casualties, the lowest number of Iraqi security force casualties. So the direction continues to be headed in the right way.
What???? Al Qaida is in Iraq? Are you serious? Everyone told us when Bush was President that there was no Al Qaida in Iraq, they were in Afghanistan, where Obama was going to fight the good war.
Those numbers must be why we’re hearing the drumbeat to pull out of Afganistan. Libs want a defeat somewhere.