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. ... 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.
Michael J. Totten, another wingnut writer, basically endorses Yon's statements:
The war in Iraq is all but over right now, and it will be officially over if the current trends in violence continue their downward slide. ... The anti-Iraqi insurgency – a war-within-a-war – really is effectively over.
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What makes you say Yon is a favorite of wingnuts on the right? Have you read him much?
Here he makes a statement that wouldn't be too popular with those folks, methinks:
"The government of the United States has no right to send our people off to war and keep secret that which it has no plausible military reason to keep secret. After all, American blood and treasure is being spent. Americans should know how our soldiers are doing, and what they are doing while wearing our flag. The government has no right to withhold information or to deny access to our combat forces just because that information might anger, frighten, or disturb us."
He was banished a couple of times by military authorities as well for things he reported or themes he was developing in his reportage.
Maybe you don't care much for Yon, or maybe you don't like what he has to say. But is that a reason to stick some kind of disparaging label on him? Kind of childish, in my opinion.
A combination of things at work here.
One. Disdain for the mid-level anarchy extant in much of Iraq, arising from a disdain for Iraqi life.
Two. It seems that word about needed transfer of US troops to Afghanistan has filtered down to the war whores who have seen the consequent need for a declaration of victory,hoping for a "decent interval" before US troops' egress then noticeably revitalizes the Iraqi insurgency.
Of course the new Iraqi government, as it erratically solidifies, will be as anti-American in policy as was Saddam Hussein, unless America, for example, shifts gears and comes to fair terms with Iran.
In the interim, enough US soldiers will continue to be killed and wounded so as to preclude any objective observor from maintaining the war and occupation, what remains of it, was/is a justified tradeoff for not having intervened in the first place.
Ott
Yon writes
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.
This whitewashing of grossly increased violence due to the intervention and occupation could only be written by a war whore. Patrick Cockburn for example, would never write such a piece of deceitfully self-exculpating crap.
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