Strolling the Streets of Ramadi: Must Read in NYTIMES

I don't usually recommend reading from the NY Times... but today is different. Please read the entire article here.

The basic import of the article has two aspects. The first is the report of the turning tide against Al Qaeda in Iraq. This has been reported on previously and recorded on this blog.

The second is the insinuation that the only goal in Iraq is stability. This is patently false. As I have detailed on this blog, the key factor for success in the war on terror is eliminating state sponsorship of terror. Since Iran and Syria are the two leading, remaining state sponsors the U.S. has a responsibility to do everything within its power to terminate that state sponsorship. Iran and Syria have the most to gain by the U.S. failing in, or even prematurely evacuating, Iraq. We must stay the course or we will be forced to return to even more desperate situation.

But there is enough good happening on the battlefields of Iraq today that Congress should plan on sustaining the effort at least into 2008.

Michael E. O’Hanlon and Kenneth M. Pollack writing in the July 30th, 2007 edition of the New York Times.