Our Inhuman Enemies

More Michael Yon from Iraq: accompanying a mixed force of US and Iraqi troops, they stumble across an Iraqi village where al Qaeda had butchered the inhabitants, beheaded the children, and slaughtered the livestock. The buildings were left standing and the entire village filled with IEDs, a booby-trapped community which thankfully didn't take any soldiers' lives.

The brutality and "scorched earth" aspect of AQ's tactics is suggestive to me. It would seem that as their popular support wanes, they've resorted entirely to brutality in an attempt to cow the local populace. This in itself shows that the surge is working (sorry Democrats), though the spin on incidents such as exactly the opposite. But what this really demonstrates is the fate of Iraq should we quit the country.

[Warning: the photos are pretty graphic]