isn’t it a beautiful day outside? it is here in san antonio.

and the iraqis are actually starting to conduct counter insurgency operations on their own. that’s the beginning of the end of out involvement there.

i really believe the picture here will be a timeless photo that will one day be in textbooks. kind of like that picture of that afghani girl taken all of those years ago.

this comes on a day when iraqis have arrested a top terror mastermid. and we found a bunker. the iraqis are finally beginning to take the reins.

government is little more than an organized monopoly of violence. we were the government after the fall of baghdad. whether we liked it or not. we were the only people with the ability to exercise violence.

shortly after the fall of baghdad however, contestants to our ‘government’ sprang up. we have patiently trained and equiped the iraqis (read: shi’ites and kurds) to wield that violence for themselves.

now that they are beginning to be able to do it. by themselves. they will not need our help much longer.

the real test of our intentions. despite anything the french, russians, or the u.n. say will be whether or not we leave when the iraqis can govern themselves.

i see light at the end of the tunnel!