How will the Iraq war be won?

A while back Bothwell did a piece on 1st Sgt Brad Kasal which was titled "Why we'll win this war". While I agree that men like 1st Sgt Kasal are the reason the US is so successful at war, I do not think those men alone can win this war in Iraq. I agree in part with President Bush when he says that our troops will be able to come home when the Iraqi troops can do the job, I think the war will really be won by the Iraqi people themselves.

Over the past 7 months I have spent alot of time searching the internet for news about Iraq, specifically the western Al Anbar Province, even more specifically the towns of Qaim and Husaybah. My son Tyler has been in Husaybah, or as I call it the Armpit of Al Anbar. I did not find much news from there, but saw alot of news that most folks never saw. I saw articles about US troops helping the Iraqi people and the Iraqi people responding in a positive way. I saw articles about Iraqi citizens reporting weapons caches to the US military. I saw a couple of articles about Iraqis beating terrorists to death before they could blow themselves up. I even read an article about a new "terrorist" group that had declared war on insurgents and foreign fighters. But until this week I never had much hope that the end of the war may be near. This week I read a few articles that give me hope that it may soon be over, of course soon is a relative term, and to me means soon enough that Tyler would not have to go back.

One article was about the massive protests after the terrorist bombing that killed more than 115 people. Thousands of Iraqis walked the streets chanting "No to terrorists", and vowing to never give in. A related article was about hundreds of Iraqis demanding the resignation of the town officials who were supposed to protect them from terrorists. The people of Iraq are getting mad. Good!!

Another article was about the murder of a working man who happens to belong to a trade union, and the union was saying they will never give in to terrorists, and just want to be able to work for a living. Imagine my happiness in seeing a story about a union actually doing something good for a change. I had no idea unions existed in Iraq. Saddam must have been democrat baathist

But the story that really gave me hope was this one about a group of Iraqi special forces who are working closely with the US Marines. These young men who "sleep on rocks, eat MREs, and are not afraid to die" may be the real reason we are going to win the war in Iraq.

UPDATE 3/5/05: If I am correct (believing Bush is correct) reports like this will become more and more common