Dean's World

Truer words were never spoke:

"Unfortunately, there are some individuals who are not interested in reconciliation," Odierno said. "These individuals continue to use violence to incite sectarian hatred for political gain, to promote foreign interests and to achieve personal wealth through criminal activity.

The last semblance of any "patriotic resistance" evaporated this year, as nearly all the Sunni quasi-nationalist resistance groups decided throwing in with the U.S. and democracy was the lesser of evils. This is now almost entirely a "war" between heavily-armed thugs and those trying to secure the country so Iraqis can live decent, free lives.

Odierno goes on to name names, and talks about the rescue of eight kidnapped Iraqi leaders who were attending reconciliation talks. The latter is interesting, as it highlights the ever-more-vigilant Iraqi citizenry's determination to rein in the violent element, as noted by Michael Yon:

We'll be sitting there in the TOC (tactical operations center or HQ) and an e-mail comes in and it's literally a map (or a photo of one) with detailed descriptions of wanted men and/or caches. And the information is turning out to be true. I have never seen anything like this before,

It's becoming almost bizarre how specific the informants are becoming. Informants have called up saying they are with bad guys right now and giving their location. Our guys show up and arrest everyone. Hours later, the U.S. soldiers let the informants go. JAM and AQI are getting slammed in many areas because local people are sick of the violence and local people trust Americans to help them end it.