December 21, 2007:
Turkish warplanes (about fifty of them) are
now bombing PKK (armed Turkish Kurdish separatists) in northern Iraq, and have
sent about a thousand troops, in small infantry units, in to finish off the PKK
fighters, and collect documents and prisoners. Turkish artillery was also
involved. The air attacks lasted about three hours on the 14th. Iraq
protested that they had no advanced warning, but that was on purpose, because
the Turks could not trust the Iraqis to keep information of the location and
timing of the attacks from the PKK. Meanwhile, in the south, British forces
turned over control of Basra province to Iraq. This means half of the nation's
18 provinces have their security run by the government, half by foreign troops.
Basra, however, will be a hard case for
the government. Large parts of the city are controlled by various Shia
religious, political or criminal gangs. The police are paid off, scared off or
take sides. The government is going to have an interesting time getting actual
control of the city.
The surge offensive rolls on. Although
some of the additional forces brought in for the surge are going home, U.S. and
Iraqi forces are taking advantage of the continued low terrorist activity, to
go after terrorist safe houses and weapons stores. Many Iraqis, once they sense
the terrorists aren't around anymore, are quick to tell police, or Americans,
what they know. Mass graves of terrorist victims (civilians who opposed
terrorist control of a village or neighborhood) and torture chambers are being
found. This is big news inside Iraq, but not so much outside the country. Arab
and Moslem nations find it disheartening that self-proclaimed "Holy Warriors"
would run torture chambers and murder Iraqi civilians in the thousands. But al
Qaeda and their allies did, and new evidence of the extent of this violence is
turning up each day.
The reduction in terrorist violence (to
levels not seen in three years) over the last few months has allowed for a lot
of work to be done on infrastructure. Currently, Iraqis are receiving 14
percent more electricity than at the same time last year. Oil production is up
20 percent. And so on. As a result of all this, Iraq is becoming a bad place
for journalists. Fewer of them are getting attacked, but there are far fewer
newsworthy stories. "Less violence" and "More electricity" are not issues that
make headlines.