What's Up In Iraq And The GWOT?

As always I highly recommend Bill Roggio's Fourth Rail for the most comprehensive news database and analysis on the Global War that I have found. Mike Yon has a new dispatch up after a thousand mile Iraq roundtrip and flight to Germany and back with Gen. Petreaus' CSM. Mike has been writing from the frontlines for most of the war from its most dangerous fronts, as a former Spec. Ops guy, weapons and ordinance expert he knows how to stay alive and he tells it like he sees it. Their rss feeds are on the sidebar along with CentCom's
Both guys report that as the Iraq Security Forces,ISF, grow in size and competence more and more of the people are coming out of hiding and helping get rid of the widely hated killers of al qaida and associated criminal gangs. The people want the killing of innocents to stop, they want to live normal lives and provide for their families. They are a fierce, proud people that had their pride handed to them by thugs like Saddam for so long that they learned to protect themselves with private militias. Now that the ISF has been able to take an evergrowing role in its own capacity is having a positive impact.
This is part of what I think was the only real mistakes the administration made. The first being grossly underestimating how far the society and infrastructure had decayed and second the size and evil ferocity of the latent insurgency. A hundred thousand fanatic thugs, Saddam emptied his prisons, can reak alot of havoc but the only way they can hurt us is the random IED. They are being taken out by the hundreds in Iraq and thousands in the Afgani theater. Task Force 145 and other hunter killer teams pinpoint 'em and call in the Warthogs or a drone with Hellfire in the bombay. The difference is the top guys are in Iraq, the drones are in Afganistan while their leaders hide in probable comfort.
We have heard nothing from the media hog binladen for so long now I am inclined to believe that he is dead and TF145 is getting closer and closer to Dr. Zawahiri. Yeah, fanatics are going to blow themselves up in crowded markets for their cowardly leaders untill freedom and the rule of just law slowly takes hold. Afganistan is alot like our Old West with modern weapons and its neighbor Pakistan has nukes and is caving to the taliban.
Something we need to remember when we here claims of civilian deaths is that these groups are civilian and not associated with any formal military so of course they can then make the claim. We don't miss and they love to fake it for propoganda purposes, what is sad is our MSM jumps on the lies like vultures on roadkill while the truth and life escapes them.