Nothing short of death or capture will stop terrorists in Iraq from harrassment and murder, but they're ever-shrinking, looking more like gangland thugs than ever:
Fighting erupted Tuesday in Baghdad's eastern Rashad neighborhood as Iraqi police fired on insurgents who were handing out leaflets warning people not to vote in Sunday's national elections.
While police suffered losses over several engagements, their assertive patrolling is encouraging. Northwest and west of Baghdad, captures continue:
Since Jan. 5, Iraqi Security Forces and Multi-National Forces have detained 249 people and confiscated numerous weapons and munitions....Marines and Soldiers from the 1st Marine Division of the I Marine Expeditionary Force detained 59 suspected insurgents and seized several weapons caches during operations throughout Al Anbar Province over the past 48 hours.
Not surprisingly, Sunni political intransigents, the skeptics' darlings, are watching the determination of Allied troops and Iraqis of all stripes move the country forward to elections — and seem to be losing their nerve.
SURPRISE-O-METER'S NEEDLE BARELY FLICKED: Tim found a Los Angeles Times article detailing a change in Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's political fortunes for the better. Standard elite-media bias is on full display, of course: how any dissident of a tyrannical regime involved in democratic opposition leadership from the West would not coordinate with American intelligence is beyond me, but author Edmund Sanders found it necessary to remind us that Allawi was "onetime CIA-backed." And the "array of problems that would usually spell defeat for an incumbent" are, taken separately from terrorism, reminiscent of Japan's and Germany's postwar struggles — and even a little less acute. But from any angle, Iraqis are not only confident in their growing municipalities but their statesmen in general, as well. An ambitious election campaign has done no harm, either.
In fact, I'm less interested in Iraqis' choice of representatives than the electoral accomplishment itself. While I would prefer Allawi to Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, I find the "military withdrawal" issue — short of suicidal candidates, of whom there are few — to be a red herring. Iraqi self-reliance will come about better if it is impolite ("We'll Remain; They Won't"). America's interest lies squarely in how the country independently conducts itself. So far, the future for assertive democrats is promising.
I'll be writing about that soon.