Pulling out the knife

Since my last post on Iraq, the news from that country has improved dramatically. From the perspective of a wire editor, it's been dramatic. Up until at least a month ago, one of my main tasks had been to find a prominent place somewhere in the newspaper to play the major death, destruction and combat stories from that war.

Slowly, however, the major story of the day would be about the dramatic drop in deaths (while however still high.) Then, there was a stories of Iraqi refugees taking advantage of the lull in violence to return to their native country. Recently, there have been stories about streets and marketplaces reopening, even Iraqis going to amusement parks.

It seems most of the credit should go to Gen. David Petraeus. As I read it, this drop in violence is not really because of the increase of soldiers in Iraq, but more about the change of strategy, one in which our troops have become partners with Iraqi civilians in combatting the violence. Our soldiers have been living closely with the Iraqis, working with them to protect neighborhoods, and then larger territories.

This makes a lot of sense, and brings us closer to the goal of being able to safely pull out our troops. But we aren't ready yet.

It would make a lot of sense for the insurgents to lay low, at a time when our forces are stronger, and wait to attack when our troop levels go down again or when they pull out entirely. So, maybe that is why the violence has gone down.

Also, remember that Iraq cannot really heal until we pull out. We are the knife that has been driven into their body. Even after the doctors are able to safely remove the blade, the patient still may be in danger.

It is the Iraqi people who ultimately must solve the complicated problems that we have unleashed on them.