Al Qaeda in Iraq "never closer to defeat": Crocker

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Al Qaeda in Iraq "never closer to defeat": U.S. envoy
Sat May 24, 2008 2:49pm EDT

By Adrian Croft

NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) - The U.S. ambassador to Iraq
praised Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Saturday for
cracking down on Shi'ite militias and Sunni Arab
militants and said al Qaeda in Iraq had never been
closer to defeat.

"You are not going to hear me say that al Qaeda is
defeated, but they've never been closer to defeat than
they are now," Ryan Crocker told reporters during a
visit to the Shi'ite holy cities of Najaf and Kerbala
in southern Iraq.

-snip-

Crocker said it was important that Iraqi forces were
leading operations in Basra and Mosul -- where U.S.-
led coalition forces played a supporting role -- and
acting alone in Sadr City.

"That's a level of capability that simply wasn't
possible even six months ago," he said.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSCOL46197920080524

---

Crocker goes on to say that the October 1 date
for provincial elections will slip.

[neverforget]

1. We're turning the corner again.......round and round we go, how many

people get killed, no one knows.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Declaring victory and going home I see...

there are days...

[HardWorkingDem]

3. Oh, what...all two to five percent of them....

This fucking war will never end......indigenous people rarely give up the fight...when is the US going to realize that?

[Vincardog]

4. The US population does realize it. The NeoConsters who stole our government are the only ones who

who have any faith in the illegal occupation of Iraq.

[scotto2008]

5. Al Qaeda = Goldstein

I think 95% of the "Al Queda" legend is a neo-con contrived phantom like 1984's Goldstein,
so we can all have our "daily Hate" and love Big Brother for protecting us.

[cbc5g]

6. How do they tell who is Al-Qaeda and who isnt?

Do they have an Al-Qaeda armpatch or something?

[Bob Dobbs]

7. Al Qaeda in Iraq "never closer to defeat" (of America)

We can't "win".

(Al Qaeda is a fictional construct of the military-information-security complex.)

[timtom]

8. Crocker

Such an appropriate name.

"Here. I've prepared you another crock."

[DFW]

9. And "prosperity is just around the corner"

Just like Hoover said in 1932, not quite 3 years into the Great Depression.
The corner was only turned after much bold governmental restructuring and
the wartime boom in military spending, almost a decade later.

Republicans must perceive time differently from the way the rest of the world does.