Mark, its great that the good news from Iraq is finally starting to get past the filter of the lib MSM and their defeatist agenda. And it is blog sites like yours that provides another avenue for people to receive the news! It is beyond doubt that the surge is working beyond expectation. And it is great that we are back on the offensive in a big way. I pray for our brave soldiers who have to fight a tough enemy in very hot conditions. I also pray for President George W. Bush, the greatest president in american history.

Things will get worse in Democrat land especially if the September report shows demonstrative progress.

They have so fully invested themselves in defeat that there can be no saving face and 2008 will be a certain loss.

Yon said: "And here in Iraq, if I were an Iraqi, I would never agree to “I will cooperate fully with the Government of Iraq.” What government? The one in Baghdad that refuses to send legal food shipments to Diyala Province?[...snip...] Even though Diyala has been a province riddled by terrorists lately, that still doesn’t change the fact that people here went without food because of the government people in Baghdad they are now supposed to pledge allegiance to. No smart person was likely to sign that line.

Isn't anyone the least bit concerned about that?

"Isn't anyone the least bit concerned about that?" Posted by: Ricorun

Barack Obama's obviously not the least bit concerned about it. Not even averting a potential genocide in Iraq concerns him-or most Democrats and other "anti-war" people-for that matter....

Obama: Don't stay in Iraq over Genocide - AP

SUNAPEE, N.H. - Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said Thursday the United States cannot use its military to solve humanitarian problems and that preventing a potential genocide in Iraq isn't a good enough reason to keep U.S. forces there.

[..]"There's no doubt there are risks of increased bloodshed in Iraq without a continuing U.S. presence there." The greater risk is staying in Iraq, Obama said.

"It is my assessment that those risks are even greater if we continue to occupy Iraq and serve as a magnet for not only terrorist activity but also irresponsible behavior by Iraqi factions," he said.

It's only a matter of time before Obama and other Democrats start using the same arguments for bailing out of Afghanistan, especially this one: "It is my assessment that those risks are even greater if we continue to occupy [Afghanistan] and serve as a magnet for...terrorist activity". Afterall, isn't Afghanistan -like Iraq- "Muslim land", too; and wouldn't America's presence in that Muslim land inflame Muslim anger???

Obama also said in that interview with the AP:

"We would be deploying unilaterally and occupying the Sudan, which we haven't done. Those of us who care about Darfur don't think it would be a good idea," he said.

This is what's going on in Darfur...Slavery!

The Persistence of Islamic Slavery

By Robert Spencer
FrontPageMagazine.com | July 20, 2007

The International Criminal Court recently issued warrants for the arrest of Ahmed Haroun, the minister for humanitarian affairs of Sudan, and Ali Kosheib, a leader of that country’s notorious janjaweed militia. The Sudanese government has refused to hand over the two for prosecution. Charges include murder, rape, torture and “imprisonment or severe deprivation of liberty.” Severe deprivation of liberty is a euphemism for slavery. Egypt’s Al-Ahram Weekly observed not long ago that in Sudan, “slavery, sanctioned by religious zealots, ravaged the southern parts of the country and much of the west as well.”

Muslim slavers in the Sudan primarily enslave non-Muslims, and chiefly Christians. According to the Coalition Against Slavery in Mauritania and Sudan (CASMAS), a human rights and abolitionist movement, “The current Khartoum government wants to bring the non-Muslim black South in line with Sharia law, laid down and interpreted by conservative Muslim clergy. The black animist and Christian South has been ravaged for many years of slave raids by Arabs from the north and east and resists Muslim religious rule and the perceived economic, cultural, and religious expansion behind it.”

The BBC reported in March 2007 that slave raids “were a common feature of Sudan’s 21-year north-south war, which ended in 2005….According to a study by the Kenya-based Rift Valley Institute, some 11,000 young boys and girls were seized and taken across the internal border -- many to the states of South Darfur and West Kordofan….Most were forcibly converted to Islam, given Muslim names and told not to speak their mother tongue.” One modern-day Sudanese Christian slave, James Pareng Alier, was kidnapped and enslaved when he was twelve years old. Religion was a major element of his ordeal: “I was forced to learn the Koran and re-baptised “Ahmed.” They told me that Christianity was a bad religion. After a time we were given military training and they told us we would be sent to fight.” Alier has no idea of his family’s whereabouts. But while non-Muslims slaves are often forcibly converted to Islam, their conversion does not lead to their freedom. Mauritanian anti-slavery campaigner Boubacar Messaoud explains: “It’s like having sheep or goats. If a woman is a slave, her descendants are slaves.”

"Isn't anyone the least bit concerned about that?" Posted by: Ricorun"

That is the rub isn't it? If the Iraqi government can't get its act together then where are we? I do see two good things coming out of the surge. First, it seems to be targeting al Queda which, from what I've read, is responsible for about 15% of the violence. When finished, I doubt there much of an organization left. Second, by arming and training the Sunnis, it will leave them in a much stronger position, if we pull out. That may at least prevent the genocide everyone is worried about.

Freedom1,
Slavery has been going on in the Sudan for years.

"Inter-ethnic conflict and civil war have plagued Sudan since its independence in 1956. A growing radical Islamic movement pressured the government to impose Sharia, or Islamic law, on all of Sudan in 1983 - at which time slave raids were reintroduced against black African villages in the south and Nuba Mountains. A 1989 military coup by radical Islamist General Omar el-Bashir spurred a dramatic increase in slave raids by Arab militia forces armed by the government."

I've been teaching my students about it and sending letters to my congressman for the last 8 years. This is hardly something you can blame Obama on.

Casper said, "Slavery has been going on in the Sudan for years."

No kidding. If you'd read my post you'd have seen this: "The BBC reported in March 2007 that slave raids “were a common feature of Sudan’s 21-year north-south war..."

Anyway, you missed the point. I blame Obama because he thinks we shouldn't use the military to stop the genocide and slavery in the Sudan. Re-read the post.

Freedom1,
So you are mad at Obama for not wanting to stop slavery? Why didn't Bush 1, Clinton or Bush 2 do something about it?

"So you are mad at Obama for not wanting to stop slavery? - Casper

Damn right.

Freedom1: Anyway, you missed the point. I blame Obama because he thinks we shouldn't use the military to stop the genocide and slavery in the Sudan.

So let me get this straight... you want to continue the surge in Iraq regardless of whether it ever results in a political solution, you want to attack Iran, and you want to occupy Sudan. Is that right? If so, we're going to get the necessary troops... where?

Ricorun: So let me get this straight... you want to leave Iraq regardless of whether it results in a genocide, you want to allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons, and you want to allow the genociode and slavery in Sudan to continue. Is that right? If so, we're are we going to get the necessary body bags... where?