Is the Surge a Success?

The jihadists seem to think so. Ace points the way to a fascinating look at the attitude and morale on the other side of the war. It's not a pretty picture for them.

A prolific jihadist sympathizer has posted an ‘explosive’ study on one of the main jihadist websites in which he laments the dire situation that the mujaheddin find themselves in Iraq by citing the steep drop in the number of insurgent operations conducted by the various jihadist groups, most notably Al-Qaeda’s 94 percent decline in operational ability over the last 12 months when only a year and half ago Al-Qaeda accounted for 60 percent of all jihadist activity!

The chart on the Talisman Gate blog says it all.  Their operational capacity has been severely reduced since the start of the surge.  They have been run out of one stronghold after another, culminating with Maliki personally overseeing the current front against AQI in Mosul.  A front he had to leave in order to meet with Rep. Pelosi in Baghdad.  The good thing is that even Pelosi is finally succombing to the overwhelming evidence and acknowledging that the surge is working - something that even the jihadists have understood for some time now.

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Outsourcing and insourcing

Now China has decided to build its own jumbo jets. 

Alone this would be no big deal, but it is indicative of a trend that is worrying many about our military capabilities.  Essentially, we are getting to a point where a war with the wrong country would substantially impact our ability to even wage war.  The glaring example of this right now is the sourcing of the Air Force's new tankers to EADS, which is the European consortium that owns Airbus, instead of contracting a US company (Boeing) to do it.  But when you think about all the electronics and chips and cables and even clothing that comes from China and ends up in critical military gear, the problem is even worse.  Some experts worry about back doors being hardwired in these chips, but what if we can't even get them anyway?  Spare parts become impossible to find, and new equipment is out of the question. 

When you base your warfighting around communication and high technology as we do, that supply line has to be safe - from the raw materials all the way to the soldier in the field.  Due to globalization in the defense industry, we are rapidly approaching the place that the proper operation of the links in that chain can not be assured, while China is doing the exact opposite.

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