The Antidote To "Hagelian Nonsense"

Just to follow up on Jen's post about good news from Iraq, I serve up for your shock and awe the following two items.

First, despite bogus reports to the contrary, military recruitment for the current year is exceeding expectations (via Powerline):

Every one of the Army's 10 divisions — its key combat organizations — has exceeded its re-enlistment goal for the year to date. Those with the most intense experience in Iraq have the best rates. The 1st Cavalry Division is at 136% of its target, the 3rd Infantry Division at 117%.

Among separate combat brigades, the figures are even more startling, with the 2nd Brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division at 178% of its goal and the 3rd Brigade of the 4th Mech right behind at 174% of its re-enlistment target. This is unprecedented in wartime.

What about first-time enlistment rates, since that was the issue last spring? The Army is running at 108% of its needs. Guess not every young American despises his or her country and our president.

The Army Reserve is a tougher sell, given that it takes men and women away from their families and careers on short notice. Well, Reserve recruitment stands at 102% of requirements.

And then there's the Army National Guard. We've been told for two years that the Guard was in free-fall. Really? Guard recruitment and retention comes out to 106% of its requirements as of June 30.

Turns out our men and women in uniform aren't helpless naifs and clueless dolts after all. They know what the mission is, the risks involved, and are as committed to getting the job done as is their Commander-in-Chief. And they know that, not to put too fine a point on it, Michael Moore and Cindy Sheehan and the whole seditious "anti-war" crowd and their Extreme Media cheerleaders are full of shit.

As to the strength of the enemy, take a gander at this development (via Captain's Quarters):

The spokesman for the Zarqawi/al-Qaeda network in Iraq claimed responsibility for the attack last week on two American Navy amphibious craft, rocket attacks that missed their targets and killed a Jordanian military officer instead.

The Internet statement was signed Abu Maysara al-Iraqi, the spokesman for Al-Qaida in Iraq. That group is headed by the Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, blamed for a rash of kidnappings, killings and attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq.

Jordan said Monday it had arrested a Syrian, one of four men allegedly involved in the attack. The captured man's two sons and the Iraqi leader of the group were believed to have escaped to Iraq, officials in the Jordanian capital said.

The Jordanian statement said the four were part of an Iraqi-based terrorist organization, which the government did not identify. The government has received several warnings in recent months, however, that Aqaba had become a primary target of the al-Qaida terror network, a security official has said.

Al-Zarqawi's terror group was the second to claim responsibility for the rocket attack, but the authenticity of the statement, signed by group spokesman Abu Maysara al-Iraqi, could not be verified.

Beats me why Zarqawi would want to claim credit for that embarrassment. Maybe he and his bunch are in such desperate straits that he feels compelled to do so in order to keep himself in the news and appear "relevant."

Mr. Morrissey observes:

So now instead of attacks set up with accuracy and care, involving volunteers so dedicated that they willingly commit suicide to attack Americans, we now see hit-and-run terrorist attacks with known low probabilities of success. In this case, it didn't even allow for the AQ operatives to get away cleanly, as their apparent ringleader got caught by the Jordanians. Zarqawi's spokesman openly talks about covering the "retreat" of their fighters after the botched attack.

All of this adds up to some serious strain on suicide-attack recruiting. It looks like Zarqawi has burned through a major portion of his lunatics in Iraq and now has to use tactics that make him much less likely to stage successful attacks on American assets. It also suggests that the Coalition efforts to interdict arms and other communications to his network has succeeded in forcing him to use less reliable weapons as well as less reliable tactics. [emphasis added]

Alrighty, then. We have a prosperous constitutional democracy blossoming in the heart of the Middle East; we have our own military recruitment breaking records; and our enemies in Iraq have been ground down to a fine powder.

And what do we get from newspapers and the network news? Sez Ralph Peters....

The Cindy Sheehan Extravaganza. Predictions of disaster. The depiction of Michael Moore as a hero and our soldiers as dupes. And a ceaseless attempt to convince the American people that there's no hope in Iraq.

The ugly truth is that much of the media only cares about our soldiers when they're dead or crippled.

That's only part of it, actually; the other part is that the only thing better to them than dead or crippled American soldiers is dead or crippled American civilians, which would be the end result of their demands for full-scale retreat in the GWOT.

Osama bin Laden wasn't all wrong when he pronounced America a "weak horse." He simply has had the misfortune since 9/11 of having to deal with its north end.