Ten Years Already

June 7th was also the anniversary of the assassination of Abu Musab al Zarqawi (god remember him?), the head of Al Qaeda in Iraq.

The 'Surge' is commonly thought of as the turning point in the Iraqi campaign , but in truth the by the time we were funneling extra brigades into the country the stage for victory was already made. Killing Zarqawi was the first step. The next came in Anbar, where the Sunnis were finally fed up with Al Qaeda and entered into negotiations with the Marines. The result was the Anbar Awakening which chased AQI out of Anbar. In one fell swoops to leg of the insurgency were knock off the stool.

The third was knocked off by the Iraqi Army, which in March of 2008 declared war on the third lef, Muqtada al-Sadr and his Shia militia. The Battle of Basra was a great victory for the Iraqi army and by that summer Fallujah had a KFC and the Marines were bored and asking to go to Afghanistan.