Ramadi News

And they say there is no good news from Iraq... This comes from the NY Times:

"Anbar Province, long the lawless heartland of the tenacious Sunni Arab resistance, is undergoing a surprising transformation. Violence is ebbing in many areas, shops and schools are reopening, police forces are growing and the insurgency appears to be in retreat...
Many Sunni tribal leaders, once openly hostile to the American presence, have formed a united front with American and Iraqi government forces against Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. With the tribal leaders’ encouragement, thousands of local residents have joined the police force. About 10,000 police officers are now in Anbar, up from several thousand a year ago. During the same period, the police force here in Ramadi, the provincial capital, has grown from fewer than 200 to about 4,500, American military officials say."

I was stationed in Ramadi, and it has been the hottest spot after Baghdad. And, often no news is good news. You almost never hear any news from Southern, Northern, and Eastern Iraq; that's because things are much better there. The hot spots remain the Capital, the Al Anbar province, and the border with Syria. The border is so hot because of the foreign fighters trying to enter the country or ship arms and explosives in. Al Anbar is mostly Sunni, and Al Qaeda is Sunni, so they seek to use those loyalties to inflame the populace.

There is good news in Iraq, we are accomplishing our mission there. Rebuilding a nation is not a quick and easy process. Yet we are doing it faster and with greater resistance (home and abroad) then we rebuilt Germany and Japan.